I want to assign this tiny green wire to my custom net called ‘CUSTOM_GND’.
However, the only way I can find to do that is ‘L’ and add ‘CUSTOM_GND’, but I can’t find a way to hide the label. In addition, after I click ‘OK’, the net label reverts to ‘GND’ (at the bottom left of the screen, it says “Connection Name: GND”), which I assume is somehow tied to the GND symbol.
What am I missing here?
Also, where do I see a list of all the active nets in my schematic?
If I well understand you (I’m not sure) you are trying to add second name to the wire (first is given by GND symbol).
If there are several net names given to the same net KiCad selects one based on some rules.
I don’t know details as I have never tried to give two net names to one net.
My first action with KiCad was to build my library and among others I have there several GND symbols having different names.
I have done it with KiCad V4. I read that from V8 you can just place power symbol and change its name, but I had no time to try to do it and then delete most symbols from my Power library.
You want to connect two different nets. For this, you need a net tie.
I have no clue, I never needed this.
I suppose you can place several labels on one wire and one of them will be used for netlist. I also suppose that if you run ERC (I never do it) you will get some warning about it.
With the L hotkey you are adding a label to the net. Local labels are lower in priority to power symbols like GND so the effective net name is GND.
You are not changing the net of the wire or creating a new net because it is still all connected together. It’s unclear what you want to achieve. Maybe an XY problem?
Thank you all for the quick responses!
I’m not trying to tie 2 nets together. I don’t want the GND net, which appears to be somehow attached to the default library symbol.
What I want to do is to replace the default GND net with my CUSTOM_GND net.
You will have to replace the GND power symbol with a CUSTOM_GND power symbol. You can edit the power symbol to do that. But this CUSTOM_GND will not be connected to the GNDs elsewhere.
That renamed symbol will only be in the schematic. You will have to save it to a personal library if you want to use it again elsewhere.
Great! Thanks!
What about the other question of how to hide the net label on short wires so it’s not obnoxious?
You can select the label, edit the properties and change it to not visible. But how will you see the label afterwards, unless you do a Find?
Sorry, not possible to do this.
Thanks, but where is the property to set the label to not visible?
If I use your suggestion above, the ground symbol itself will have the label “ZYNQ_GND”. In fact, I just tried your suggestion, but the wire connected to “ZYNQ_GND” still says “Connection Name: GND”. Where in the symbol editor do I change “GND” to “ZYNQ_GND”?
Warning says that there are somehow 2 nets now connected to the same pin…I need to find a way to ‘disconnect’ the GND net…
What version are you running? Should have asked this at the beginning. Making a new power symbol by editing the label of an existing power symbol works from v8 onwards. Before that you had to edit the name of the hidden pin in the power symbol as well.
Sorry, it doesn’t seem possible to change a label to not visible. I must have selected a value or refdes in my testing. And just as well, an invisible label could cause problems later.
I’m on v9.0.0. I downloaded a few weeks ago.
I just did Save-As on the default GND symbol from the default library. How do I find the hidden pin in the power symbol?
Forget the hidden pin thing then. You can make a new power symbol by editing the value.
As the warning says, it’ll only exist in the schematic. You’ll have to save a copy in a personal library if you want to use it in other projects.
Thank you!! It looks like it’s all working now! : )
What is the idea to add label and hide it. If you need to have specific name of a net it should be clear at schematic. I don’t see any use in the invisible label.
I was assuming that the label for the ground would be sufficient. Now I understand that the power symbol contains the net itself, therefore serving also as the net label in the case of power/ground, so I agree that there is no need for an invisible label.
Also, where do I see a list of all the active nets in my schematic?
View–>Panels–>net navigator
This shows the currently highlighted net and all occurences on the complete schematic.
View–>Panels–>Search Panel
This shows a list of all nets named by Power symbols and a second list with all nets named by labels.
Have you read Getting Started manual?
Yes. If these answers are already in the manual, I must have missed them. My apologies.
