I’ve made a project with repeated parts.
The repeated parts are a sub-sheet in the schematic, which have been “duplicated”.
Then components imported in the PCB Editor.
Others parts routed, and the first channel also.
All these parts above, have been done with Kicad 8.08.
Next, was the time when Kicad propose me to update to v9.
So I did it, and back to my PCB
Using Tools => multichannel => generate areas of placement rules (I think, it is a traduction of my own)
Making the areas going in using Tools => multichannel => “repeat placement/layout”
The status is saying, for every area of multichannel “number of components not corresponding”
I check all the boxes and click OK anyway but nothing is done, and the information message
“copied in 0 rules areas”
I suppressed all the components of the three channels to be copied from the first channel, save Kicad and exit. Re-open Kicad, import for new the three channels, created the rules area.
Just like the tutorial. But same result…
I don’t understand and I’m a bit lost ; I just need to do the multichannel layouting to finish the board and send it…
It says you have different number of components in the target areas vs the reference area. Double-check this. You can also attach here (or DM me) the project.
It was a bit unsaid/not very clear in my previous message.
But, lately [and made this operation several times] I :
Suppressed in the PCB editor all the channels’ components except the first ; which is already routed.
Save and exit Kicad.
Re-open Kicad
Update PCB from schematic
This imports me the components left
Creating the rules areas for duplication as in the official topic,
and same…
It is non sense there is a mismatch between the number or type of components.
The channels are separate sheets whe have been duplicated (right clic duplicate or CtrlD) when the first and reference was finished. And I’ve just verified, all the same (even the footprints), except the components numbering.
I double, triple, and more… checked this…
I’m lost…
Maybe something go wrong in the files ?
Or was a little inspiration to finish the routing while updating to Kicad 9 before completing it ?
I’m a bit hesitant to attach the project, since it is a professional one, with some functionnalities very considered.
Hi,
And thank you for your support.
I had to make several times the operation I described before, and re-initialise all the symbols and footprints libraries directions. It finally works, some incomprenhensible and weird way…
Similar to origin post I have also problems with multichannel-tool. I want use a existing sch+brd file from other KICAD9 project (called “reference” below) as a base for duplicating. The reference schematic I have added via hierarchical sheet in schematic editor and the reference layout was added via “add PCB” in layout editor. For consistancy after that I update layout from schematic just to assure, there are no errors, also ERC/DRC is okay (both reference sch+pcb are also in current project folder)
If I proceed according tutorials, i.e. duplicating hierarchical sheets, update layout from schematic and perform two steps of new Multichannel-Tool menue (all checkboxes are set) it ends with described error message above and no update is performed.
Unfortunately I am not allowed to upload files as new user… How can I provide my small example project? kicad 9 import.zip (149.8 KB)
I suspect there’s a bug somewhere in the function.
I copied/pasted the one hierarchical box so that there are 3 similar channels in the schematic. I updated the board and all looked good, the components were annotated properly and the footprints were there. But trying to use Tools → Multi-Channel → Repeat Layout after generating the rule areas led to the same error, the Repeat Layout dialog said “topology mismatch” or something like that for the two target channels.
I renamed the hierarchical sheet file in the file system and manually changed the file name in Properties of each sheet:
I tried to update the PCB but I had to re-annotate first. Then all looks good in the PCB and the Repeat Layout dialog tells the channels are OK:
Thanks for really fast response and reproducing the issue!
I am relieved, that the problem isn’t sitting in front of my computer.
At the moment I would prefer to wait for the next update version honestly.
I seem to have a similar problem. However my error message is “Iteration count exceeded (timeout)”. I tried to create the rule areas both automatically and manually, tried renaming and annotating schematic multiple times. My layout wasn’t finished, but I don’t suspect that was the problem (I wanted to check I understand multichannel correctly beforehand).
The only thing that kinda worked is when I chose wrong hierarchical sheet in “Place Items from sheet” in the rule area properties. Then at least the layout and rule area shape was copied, without any component movement. I cannot upload the project (I’m new). Any ideas please? Am I doing something wrong?
Nope, unless somebody creates an issue on Gitlab. I’m following this thread, but I can’t guarantee I wont miss some stuff - so Gitlab is the way to go.
If you read and follow this FAQ article you can promote yourself from “new forum user” to “basic forum user”: New Member Information
Then you are allowed to attach a example project archive. Without the project it’s impossible to give a good advice.
nixie_clock.zip (274.6 KB)
Here is the project, nothing is finished, I was just trying out the multichannel tool before I move on. Any advice is welcomed. tl;dr: When I use replicate layout and click on the reference rule area, I get “Iteration count exceeded (timeout)”.
With your nixie project I get the same error message.
If I delete (remove) half of the schematic symbols/nets then the multichannel tool works and correctly repeats the layout. So you are not doing something obviously wrong.
Therefore I think it has something to do with your schematic, it’s too complicated for the current algorithm. Albeit I was not able to find which symbol or net specifically is responsible for the failure.
It would be nice if you open a gitlab bugreport (kicad–>Help–>report bug), so tomasz is officially informed about this case.
I am using 8.08 right now and do not want to upgrade right now because I have a business project with which I do not want to open the possibility of compatibility issues.
There is a short video on the KiCad website; seems to deal with multichannel. Is that video supposed to have sound? I cannot seem to turn on sound in that video.
Aside from the business project (1) I have a personal project (a high voltage “load extender”) which has 4 channels on one board. It is not quite ready yet but it would be interesting to try out the multichannel capability with this. But I guess I would need to upgrade to 9.0 which I do not want to do just yet.
I would be happy to pass along my zipped project in a few days once I get one of the four channels completed. (This will not be a lot of work.)
I have laid out plenty of good pcbs using KiCad so I do not need a “layout service.” But I feel like this relatively simple design might be a good candidate for learning the multichannel capability in 9.0. If anyone does it in 9.0, I probably would not be able to import it into 8.08 anyway. Here is an image of the schematic as it is right now.
The design is likely to raise some questions among experienced circuit designers. A couple of key points:
6a) I am designing it to use (almost?) entirely components which I have in my lab. Some are obsolete.
6b) I have a number of stuffing options. For example; using either U1 or D1 but not both.
That would be a great candidate. As all your ‘channels’ are on one schematic, you’ll want to enclose each channels’ components with a schematic rule area, and attach a Component Class directive label to each (named something like ‘Channel_1’, ‘Channel_2’, etc). You may wish to move the left hand channel to the right a bit so you’re not having the thread the rule area around the common components to their left.
You can then use the multichannel tool to replicate the layout based on the assigned component classes.
@mf_ibfeew after tinkering only the decoder and nixie had to be deleted (but not the decoupling cap, which was still a “single instance”), then the repeat started working. I will report it as bug then. Thanks for the help.
