Is there a way to make “off sheet” notes with symbols and wires which are ignored in the PCB editor?
this would be for wiring reference during assembly but not on the PCB itself.
If not, maybe make a separate schematic in the project which has those connections and the board as a block with input/outputs? Similar to rooms but with no reference to the schematic for the board.
Thanks for help/tips.
The simplest way to do this is to put them in a schematic file that is not part of the project. You can have multiple instances of KiCad open, each wit it’s own project. So you can use another project to collect sections of often used schematic snippets, and then simply use the clipboard to copy and paste them from one project to another.
This is not ideal, but it’s quite usable until KiCad gets more advanced methods to do this.
People were writing that if symbol reference starts from special sign (may be #) than it is excluded from netlist. But I never tried and not sure if remember well.
Adding an # in front of the RefDes does indeed prevent hem from being on the PCB, but it’s an “old” method. A more “modern” method is to turn on the checkbox for “Exclude from board” in the symbol properties:
Ah that is great. Looking at your symbol properties dialog I realized I am running an older version (5.1.1). I will update when I get to a hard line.
The # in the RefDes works great as well. Thank you both.
V5 is indeed quite old. My screenshot is from V6.0.10, and KiCad V7 is expected for the end of January.
5.1.1 must be about 3,5 years old.
Why guess?
V5.1.1 is not mentioned but V5.1.2 was released on 2019-04-26. And that is indeed quite close to 3.5 years.
KiCad V6 was a huge improvement (except for the ugly icons which are all blue) and it has 3 years of development in it. The transition from V6 to V7 will be a lot smaller.
strange, I dont know how I got that version because this laptop is only a year and a half old and I would have installed from the downloads page (I had not used kicad before hence no old installer files).
Anyways, I got it installed and see the new button.
For reference, the “old” # method mentioned is not recognized by the “exclude from board” button. Meaning they both work but by different means.
I never quite get why people are running older versions of kicad. v6 is a huge improvement over V5 , why people stay with older versions seems rather bizarre to me
Windows Albatross, er, 7? 
I think some people have a very small comfort zone when it comes to computer software.
I make notes on stuff and thoughts that I have on the ‘FAB’ layer and then switch it off when I don’t want to see it, there are ‘user’ layers for this as well, you dont have to include these layers when you send out your Gerbers. I find this useful and I often stuff things on the fab layer that just stays with me and the project, not sure if this is relevant but it’s free !
Andy
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