Interesting BUG in Eeschema - Power Ports

[Sprig]

Maybe this is a known issue, I don’t know.

One can ADD a power port by using the “a” HotKey. And then ALL the normal properties are allowed to be edited

Select the FIELD value, for a part that is just a visual display, then run the ERC with errors.

I was trying to figure out what exactly was wrong, but I got lost in my process; sorry about that.

Essentially, as I understand the issue at the moment, the DRC does not like power symbols added with the HotKeys with “a” selected as the HotKey, which then allows assignment of a footprint to a part that does not actually exist.

Any and all Power Symbols should have the footprint select field disabled in my opinion.

I’m sorry that I could not nail the actual operation of failed events any better.

Thanks for trying!

[nquantum]

What is the error message? Did you add power flag already?
http://docs.kicad.org/4.0.0/nl/getting_started_in_kicad.html

[Rene_Poschl]

@Andy_P

The power symbol Part Value is what differentiates one power port voltage from another. The symbol’s pin’s Pin Name should be the same as the Part Value, as it determines the name of the net to which the symbol is attached. Power Ports are global nets.

Just a clarification:
It’s the other way round. The pin name determines the resulting net name. (The value and symbol name should be the same so that the user of the symbol knows what they get.)

[Sprig]

@Andy_P

Of course there is no footprint associated with a Power Symbol.

One CAN actually assign a footprint to the port in the properties window. Maybe this should be not allowed?

@Andy_P

Power symbols have one pin, of type Power In, not Power Out. Why not Power Out? Because it’s not a source of power. If you placed two +12V power ports on a schematic, and their pins were declared as Power Out, the ERC would rightly complain: two outputs connected together.

THANKS for this^^^ explanation! Simple and to the point.

[c4757p]

@Sprig

One CAN actually assign a footprint to the port in the properties window. Maybe this should be not allowed?

Disallowing this is reasonable to me; I may propose it on the mailing list. Power components do not get exported to the PCB anyway so there is little use in assigning a footprint even if someone had come up with a contrived workflow where it might make “sense”