I am new in making pcb via kicad. I’ve updated into kicad 5, I liked how the new features especially the auto routing goes and I have several questions regarding routing.
As of now, I lay down tracks manually following the ratsnest in v4 and I can add extra component in between without changing the schematics and add extra tracks between non-existing ratsnest from the netlist.
My question is, is there a way that I use modern toolset feature that has auto routing between source to destination freely that isn’t locked between ratsnest only?
I am sure that you guys gonna stop me from this kind of practices of open/free routing between component pins because they can pose a problem of rogue tracks and traces. I am trying to make sure that the traces didn’t short each other.
Or even better, can the netlist be generated from pcbnew and imported from eeschema?
I am sorry for such question, these may have been another ‘common’ question.
Hi,
I’ve tried it, non of them enable me to connect a pin listed under netlist to a free non-netlist pin
I’m sorry, maybe my explanation was confusing you guys, In short, I wanted to connect between a netlist pin to non-netlist pin with “modern toolset” advantages of auto routing
I can do what you want if i set the interactive router to “highlight collisions”
But the setting is only updated when you start the interactive router. This means you might need to exit the tool and restart it to get the new settings.
I tried, it is just the same. I can’t connect them together.
Maybe it was my mistake or something. I just realised that the extra component were added into the pcbnew instead of the eeschema, with that the newly added component in pcbnew is an orphaned reference without being added into netlist properly.
I wanted to connect header pin that were added from eeschema’s netlist with a header pin added in pcbnew that weren’t from eeschema’s netlist.
For example, Header Pin A1 were added from eeschema, made its way into the netlist with A1-pad1 on pin 1, then I add another Header Pin B1 directly inside pcbnew that weren’t listed in eeschema’s generated netlist, there is no “B1-pad1” tag to pin 1. Rather it is just the pin number “1”. When I use “modern toolset”, both A1 pin 1 and B1 pin 1 can’t connect.
I even turned off the DRC thing off from the left toolbar side.
I am at a loss. Is it possible we talk about different things?
I assumed you wanted to add a footprint on the pcb side of things instead of going through eeschema. This should be possible using the highlight collision mode. (I tested it in version 5 under ubuntu.) Maybe it was not clear that you also need to select “allow DRC violations”?
You have already been told further up that updating the schematic from the pcb is not possible. So i am really not sure what you expect.
You would need to add a symbol for your added footprint manually to the schematic. Give it a free reference and give your footprint the same reference. Connect the symbol to the things you want it connected to. And then run the update pcb from schematic tool from within pcb_new.
In the modern canvas/toolset it has to be turned off in the settings dialog. Combination of “Highlight collisions” and “Allow DRC Violations” should work.
I’m sorry, my mistake, I got used to kicad 5’s single click placement between trace to destination instead of kicad 4’s double click to end and confirm the trace has been connected.
It can’t be used with “walk around” feature is it?
Well walk around will try to find a route without drc violations. How should that work without that? (How should kicad know which violations to ignore for the walk around algorithm?)
You can use walk around to get near your new part and then switch over to highlight collisions with allow DRC violations.
Thank you so much for the answer, sorry for making such confusions. What about the DRC check feature that will give warning over those new part placed?
If you don’t want DRC violations you need to assing the correct net to the parts. If you do not want to go through eeschema you can set nets manually in the pad settings dialog. (right click the pad in question and enter the net name. Best is to first copy the netname from a pad that is on the target net.)
As we already hinted at, If you want the protection of kicads toolset you really need to go through eeschema.
I would understand you wanting to exchange two pins in the pcb side before transferring that change back to the schematic. (pin or unit swapping) This will hopefully be implemented in some future version of kicad.
But adding a full component really is a strange thing to do.
