KiCad 7.0 will have a DNP Flag (see details here) that modifies a component that it is “excluded from any KiCad generated placement files”.
In my opinion, the exclusion of a DNP component should take place on BOM level, not on placement file level. After all, the DNP component does have a footprint on the board and therefore also a position.
The DNP mechanic could look as followed
DNP components are marked in the schematic
DNP components are excluded from the BOM
DNP components’ 3D models are not shown in the 3D viewer
This is basically the current “Exclude from BOM” behavior + marking in schematic + removal from 3D viewer. Any opinions?
Right or wrong i don’t know, like many other things it must be decided on the use case.
This is how i do it up to now:
in the component database i have, there is a field ‘do not place’ that i fill in when i place parts on the schematic.
the field is extracted in the BOM i send to the manufacturer, the P&P file contains the position of the part.
so the manufacturer is in charge of modifying the P&P file that i send him, i’m not particularly happy about that, there is a ‘grey area’ of responsibility in the process… things can go wrong (and indeed has gone wrong several times )
KiCad V6 has two checkboxes for this in the symbol properties:
so you can either exclude it from the BOM, the PCB or both.
I have used the “Exclude from board” to add some things (such as for example a potentiometer) connected with wires to a connector on the PCB. Having it in the schematic makes the schematic “complete”.
As of today, the DNP flag in 7.0-rc1 only greys out the part in schematic editor and remove the 3D object in the viewer. I have just tried exporting the BOM and all DNP parts are shown.
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