Hello to all;
This is my first message so I would like to introduce myself first.
I am Jeff 63 years old, and I just decided to have a look at electronics stuff.
So I am a real newbie, and of course I’ll probably ask questions that look stupid. I apologize in advance.
Well, I started to see if I can solder components, and I bought a kit to build an adjustable power supply based on LM317.
I succesfully did it, and for me the next step is to be able to create new circuits.
So I started to use KiCad, and had the idea to try to replicate the PCB that comes with my Kit.
I have the schematic, and created it in KiCad, no major problems.
I decided to go ti the next step, and create the PCB. It is not to manufacture it, but just to learn KiCad.
After the schema was made, I created the Netlist, to be able to generate the PCB.
That is where my problem happend.
I have a copy of the pcb delivered in the kit, and I cannot reproduce it, easely.
I had to use the WireIt plugin to be able to rename all the netnames according the connections I see on the PCB.
I do not understand the rules behind the creation of the netlist, and the naming of each net name.
Is there someone that can help me understanding how it works.
If needed I can post pictures of both schematic, and the PCB, just let me know it.
Thanks in advance for the time you will spend reading my message.
Have a nice day.
Regards.
P.S Excuse my bad English, but I am French.
The net names are just the list of pads. I don’t know because I’ve never been concerned about it but they may simply come from the first two pads connected. On mine there is an A with a green line under it in the schematic tool. You can use that to name the nets whatever you want.
WireIT is good for manual PCB naming, but keep in mind you have then diverged the SCH from the PCB.
You can manually name-tag any NET in the SCH, if you want less cryptic names, but the SCH default is to simply seed the auto generated net name from one connection eg Net-(C5-Pad1)
It depends on the design, as to if you bother to name each and every net.
Things like a simple RC junction point, it would be rare to name, but BUS and IO connections are commonly user-named.
My approach is to just use labels on each net I want named, the only key is that the little rectangle at the corner of the label must connect to the line you want to name.
This would for example change Net-(C5-Pad1) to Power_OK
Good morning from France (Normandy);
Thank you very much all 4 of you for your answers.
I was asking this question because it was my first attempt with KiCad. So now I better understand the use I can make with the labeling capability from KiCad. Am I right if I say that the only labels I have to create are the ones that have a relevant interest for my PCB. About the others I should leave them as generated by KiCad.
Thanks again for the time you took to answer to me.
Have a nice day.
Regards.