Hi,
I am newbie to KICAD. When using the freerouting plugin, several components’ name become Net-(xxx). is that normal ? how can I get ride of this uknown component? Also, Whenever I try to update the pcb from the schematic, I am getting the 2 resistors and one capacitor automatically added while the same references already exist on my pcb! See the images below please:
Normally KiCad uses UUID’s to match schematic symbols with PCB footprints. If this does not work or things got out of sync, you can use Schematic Editor / Tools / Update PCB from Schematic [F8] with the option: Re-link footprints to schematic symbols based on their reference designators.
Normally you only do this once, and turn the checkbox off again after the links have been repaired.
Sometimes it’s just a little bit easier to just keep the new footprints (if you forgot to turn that checkbox on), and then simply delete the old footprints.
I don’t know about freerouter. I (and many others) prefer manual routing because routing a PCB is much more then just drawing connections. I assume that freerouter made those (xxx) names because the link between the symbols and the footprints got broken. In that case the old footprints are not part of the netlist at that moment. Maybe there is some documentation somewhere for freerouter, but it’s not part of KiCad.
As far as I can see the reference descriptors did not change, they are still R or C or U followed by a number. The Net-(xxx) you see on the pads are not “component names”, but are the net names. This is normal, if a net is not given a label, then KiCad (nothing to do with freerouting) assigns one according to a scheme. You should expect to see a lot of these net names on pads when you zoom in. Not all nets need to be assigned a label, especially those that just join two components.
You can also see the net name in the information panel at the bottom when you highlight the net with the backtick (`) key. And in the schematic editor you can also see the net name when you highlight a wire also using the backtick key.
Thanks for the clarification, so is it normal to have such net names on my PCB? it doesn’t mean that there’s an error somewhere?
What do you mean by highlighting the wire and the net name? Actually, I tried with backtick (`) but nothing was highlighted!
Thanks for the clarification, why freerouting is not prefered ?
Put the mouse cursor on the wire (can be a little difficult if the schematic is not magnified enough) and type backtick and the wire will highlight and its net will be displayed at the bottom of the window. You may need to select the net highlighter tool, a pair of crossed wires in the RH tool bar.
That’s the layout editor. I wrote schematic. Highlighting a net works in both editors and what’s more highlighting a net in one will also highlight the same net in the other, it’s a feature.
On some non-English keyboards the backtick key may be hard to access. You may have to change the hotkey mapping for better access.
PS: Here’s the schematic editor documentation about net highlighting: Schematic Editor | 8.0 | English | Documentation | KiCad and the layout editor documentation about net highlighting: PCB Editor | 8.0 | English | Documentation | KiCad and about cross-probing: Schematic Editor | 8.0 | English | Documentation | KiCad
Position your mouse/cursor over the line, DO NOT click it, then click the backtick key . . .
the net should change colour . . .
What you don’t trust me? Do you want that in writing? Wait, it’s already in writing. 
I tried that using the backtick which prints this character ` (just to confirm that it’s the good character), as it can be seen below :
Nah, many shortcut keys don’t work on other than English keyboard. You can change the attached key, though, in Preferences → Hotkeys. Type in some keyword, ‘highlight’ or ‘net’ works in this case.
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