as a new user, I am not allowed to attach files, otherwise I would send a zip that contains everything.
I have created a very rudimentary schematic that consists of nothing but a component and a connector with 1:1 wires between the connector pins and the component’s pins. All footprints are stock.
All of that works fine, and I can generate a PCB out of that schematic no probs. However, the DRC reports missing connections for all wires; consequently, the generated Gerber files show all the pads and holes but no lines on the copper wiring.
The sample schematic is of course bogus; it is a minimal example I came up with as I tried to port an existing schematic from an earlier version of Kicad to
8.0.
I did read the comment in Missing connections after sending to pcb - Layout - KiCad.info Forums about tracks and zones, but I find that confusing. I used to start with a video tutorial, eg Immobilienbewertung in weniger als 3 Minuten where there is no mentioning of zones and tracks, is that a newer feature of KiCad? In my original projects dating back to 2021, Kicad made the routing for me without any additional intervention, how can I do this in 8.0?
The lines that you see on the PCB after sending the data from the schematic editor are called ratsnest lines. They are not connections, they are where connections are needed, they indicate where your fun starts creating traces with the editor to make the required copper connections.
I strongly suggest you start with https://docs.kicad.org to acquaint yourself with the workflow, otherwise you’ll be hitting these basic barriers by trying to run before you can walk.
Thanks for all your fast and useful answers, very much appreciated!
I am not entirely new to KiCad, I did version 1 of that PCB 2-3- years ago. I could have sworn that back then I did not have to do any manual tracing, but apparently I was wrong (then again, the PCB was simple enough in v1 that I may have done that on the fly).
I don’t know, that may well turn in to a religious discussion. For some PCBs, you are certainly right, but I can think of some where an algorithm’s choice of tracing may be at least as good as a man one. Again, I may look into the plugin and see for myself.
I believe it would be nice for KiCad to offer an automatic trace and leave the fine tuning to the user. But again, that discussion may lead to nowhere.
