Multi channel tool

Software
1

hello,
i’ve seen that in the following commit the multichannel tool has been marked as completed; this feature i think it should incorporate in the kc source base the functionality of the ‘replicate layout’ plugin.

Does anyone have already tried it and have some suggestion on where where it can be found? i’d like to test it myself since lot of my work is done using the plugin and i would like to compare the capabilities of the two methods.

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I would recommend waiting until closer to V9 release (maybe the first release candidate). But if you want to try it early, there is a new demo project, multichannel_mixer, that you can look at. There is no documentation for this feature yet, so if you start now, you will have to piece it together looking at the demo project and the source code.

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Indeed, there’s no official manual, so here’s a quick instruction:

  • Draw your schematic, with the repeatable blocks as instances of a subsheet. Alternatively you can mark identical portions of your schematic with schematic rule areas and assign a component class to each.
  • Update the PCB
  • Go to Tools->Multichannel->Generate Placement Rule Areas, select the sheet instances you want the RAs for to be automatically made.
  • You can also make the RAs manually (just draw an RA, set its type to Placement and assign a sheet instance or component class to it in the RA properties dialog)
  • Place and route one of the channels manually.
  • Select the RA of that channel.
  • Go to Tools->Multichannel->Repeat Layout.
  • Check the other matching RAs and click OK.

T.

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4

I’ve just added auto-generation of placement rule areas from component classes too, so that’ll be in the next nightly build.

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Thanks all for your suggestions and guidance,
with this morning nightly i managed to multi-channel my first ‘design’.

Is it too early to report trough the usual channels if i find something ‘strange’ or is it better to wait?

for example i’m having troubles multi-channeling stuff like copper planes and text on silkscreen layers:

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For the moment cloning planes and free silkscreen text is not supported, I’ll try to implement it if time permits (push and shove stuff is taking quite a lot of my time…).

T.

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I’m so looking forward to this feature in version 9! Thanks to all of you KiCad Devs, you’re doing gods work!

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Maybe not God’s work, but at least gods’ work!

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Since it’s a nightly build, I’d like to remind all of you: Jesus saves.

T.

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As a one who both reveres holy and appreciates good benevolent puns, I could continue: why then nightly users loose their data? Because only…

But if I would do that, then, for the sake of neutrality and fairness, I should hide the post and lock the thread.

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I would go ahead and report issues now that the feature flag has been removed, since otherwise we may forget about them.

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For all users starting to play with the multichannel tool I have some remarks to step 4) of the description:

If you draw your own Placement Rule areas you should:

  • set the layer-checkboxes on all copper-layers of your design
  • disable all checkboxes from the “keepout” panel (otherwise you will not be able to place footprints and route to the footprints inside the rule areas)
  • give the rule areas a name (preferably the name of the corresponding subsheet) → this makes it easier later in the “repeat layout” dialog
  • if your placement area shows a complicated shape: draw only the first Rule Area with this complicated shape. Either copy the other RA (and change the subsheet-pulldown-menu - see üicture 2) or draw a simple triangle/rectangle as a shape. The “Repeat Layout” command will copy the exact shape from the original to all other Rule areas.

multichannel_rule_area_dialog
multichannel_rule_area_dialog2732×685 99.8 KB

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In case somebody is testing the tool, i write here what i’ve found so that we don’t open multiple issues on gl.

It seems that RefDes text properties, like size, knockout, keep upright… are not properly transferred from the master to the copy:

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I’ve added a issue on gl related to the replication of the copper filled zones:

this in my opinion is rather important since the resulting circuit is non functional.

Also i found out that copper polygons with associated net, seems to be repeated only when connected by a trace:

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And a feature request to add to the replicas non electrical items such as text, graphical shapes and free standing vias:

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image511×733 22.8 KB

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Is there any design reuse in the roadmap? Like this plugin GitHub - gauravmm/HierarchicalPcb

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They exist for schematic blocks now in the development branch, which will become the next v9 release: Post-V8 New Features and Development News - #66 by mikebwilliams

They don’t yet support a PCB design template though. This is also quite hard to get right, for instance what to do if the template was made with a different PCB stackup than the board it’s being placed on.

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Then a the user is prompted with a layer converter.

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Well yes, there are obviously some solutions, but as ever handling edge-cases makes it less than trivial to do.

I’m not saying it’s impossible, it just needs careful thought. It’s also quite a lot of work and needs somebody with the time and inclination to implement it.

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