If I move some components, do the wires follow them?

Hi all,

I am new with kicad 8.0.8. Just 2 quick questions, please:

  1. If I move some components, is it possible that the wires (connections) follow the components automatically or have I to cancel the wires and create new connections, as I am doing at the moment?
  2. How to insert a logo on the bottom side?

Thank you very much in advance

paperino204

Be precise.
At schematic are wires and symbols.
At PCB are tracks and footprints.

You are writing about wires and components? - so probably about schematic.
But post belongs to Layout category.
Generally - ???

I have no KiCad here at hand, and last time used it about 3 months ago so … don’t assume I don’t make mistake.
At schematic you certainly can select block and drag it with wires following you, but don’t remember how - may be D hotkey, may be G hotkey.
At PCB you can drag that way only single footprints - and once more I suppose D or G hotkeys, but I’m not sure.

Maybe someone else can “chime in” with the reason behind the difference?? But dragging in schematic is done with “G” and in pcb it is done with “D”.

Dragging brings the connections along with the symbol or footprint. If you move, “M” in either schematic or pcb, that moves the symbol or footprint without moving the wires (schematic) or tracks (pcb).

@Piotr I thought I had a bad memory!! I do use those hotkeys all the time…maybe you do not.

I do forget which hot key commands need the CTRL key for example. CTRL-D in schematic is “duplicate.”

@Piotr 's initial point is that we have standard language used in KiCad. We have “symbols” in schematic and “footprints” in pcb. Other terms such as “components” translate to “confusion.”

You have to be more careful with terms. Components is too general a term. Wires suggest schematic, but then you write about the bottom side, and putting a logo there, and the category is Layout (although some people don’t change the initial category which is Layout).

So it looks like you are writing about footprints and tracks.

Your footprince may come, but don’t let it lie down on the tracks. A train may come next… :frowning:

As for adding a logo, there are some standard logos in the footprint category Symbol (not obvious, I know) where you will find logos like the KiCad logo, CE, OSHW, etc. in various sizes. You select the F.Silkscreen layer, add the logo, then use the F key to move them to the back (B.Silkscreen). You’ll want to turn on the attribute Not in Schematic, and maybe lock its position.

For non-standard logos, I think the way is via File > Import > Graphics, but I haven’t done this myself so I’ll stop here.

Ahh that is a good one. (I am not saying that it is funny but I do not rule that out either!!) My last schematic had a bunch of ground symbols just because I wanted the associated ground symbol footprint to appear on the pcb to label ground test points.

That’s the other way of passing the parity test, take your pick. I do however list mounting holes in the schematic. For me it’s all a wash since all my projects are personal.

Edit: If the mounting holes have connected (e.g. grounded) pads then they must be connected in the schematic.

Well it sounds like you come out much cleaner than I do.

While you get your wash, I get dusty from grinding all of those symbols. :crazy_face:

At schematic I practically don’t use drag. My schematics consists of simple blocks (many times just copier from previous schematic) connected with several wires to bus.
As a finishing process, to have references not totally random I move (not drag) all blocks far away of sheet to annotate everything in some order and then move them back.
At PCB I first divide footprints into blocks (selecting at schematic and hotkey P at PCB). Then I position them in groups (working out of PCB) and make there all local connections. I use sometimes to drag tracks but rather not to drag footprints. Then ready blocks I move on to PCB and make connections between blocks. Sometimes happens that I found that the block should be little shifted, but as we don’t have block drag I do it by disconnecting some tracks, selecting block (several selections with Shift or Control - each time I have to find which one) and moving it. In theory I could drag block by dragging footprint after footprint but didn’t tried it (I expect more mess to correct then doing the connections once more).