Hello,
Kind of newbie to PCB design. I have been using EAGLE for drawing my schematics. One feature I have found very useful is that,if you create a net with a existing label, it prompts you if you want to connect that net to the other nets of the same name.
Is there any such feature in KiCAD ?
Cheers
Well I might not understand the question - but all nets with the same label are automatically connected.
Naming a net with an existing name -by design- connects to all other instances of that name.
You can’t have two different nets with the same name (at least, not on a flat design).
ETA: beaten to it by @mozmck
Thanks for the replies !
What I meant was sometimes if you make an inadvertent error in naming a net, in EAGLE you would know that you have made an error because there would be no popup (which you are expecting because you know that the net should get connected elsewhere)
Its not a biggie, just that one gets used to certain behavior. Like I was a bit handicapped by the lack of slide bars for scrolling around the circuit(after zooming) , then got used to it.
Not putting down KiCAD in anyway, its an amazing FOSS offering.
Cheers
In 2017 after first 10 minutes of using KiCad I loved the way of traveling through working area I have never seen before. Using only mouse wheel I am able to be whenever I want in about 1s (wheel zoom out, small move, wheel zoom in - done).
I’ve been using kicad since about 2008 and really never noticed it didn’t have scroll bars! I have always found kicad’s methods of scrolling/zooming and also the keyboard control to be faster than just about any other program.
What I meant was sometimes if you make an inadvertent error in naming a net, in EAGLE you would know that you have made an error because there would be no popup (which you are expecting because you know that the net should get connected elsewhere)
I see - I’ve never really used Eagle. I tried before I found Kicad and couldn’t make heads or tails of it. With Kicad I made my first circuit and board in a few evenings and it worked well.
One thing I do is mouse over a net, and hit the backtick/tilde (~/`) key to highlight the net. This will show all connected nets and you can quickly see if it’s connected where you expect it.
Getting a popup each and every time I place a label would be truly horrible. What If I copy a block of labels for a data or address bus onto an IC. Does that mean I get 20 popups I have to click away?
KiCad does issue warnings for nets that have more then one (different) labels. This is not an error, as there are several valid reasons for wanting to rename a single net in different parts of the schematic.
In the PCB editor, you can also see the netlist, and all auto generated net names. So you have an overview of all nets that don’t have any label at all (which is also both valid and common).
KiCad is not eagle, so don’t expect it to behave in the same way. Each and every PCB design program has it’s own strengths, weaknesses and idiosyncrasies.
Why you write net names many times? I do it only once and then copy label to use it elsewhere.
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KiCad even has an quick shortcut for that.
If you hover over an existing wire that already has a label, then KiCAd fills in the label name with the same netname, so you can place it quickly somewhere else.
So you don’t have to duplicate (copy / paste) the label itself, just pressing l while hovering anywhere on a wire is enough.
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I prefer to use as small number of hot-keys as possible as it is simply easier to remember them. So in this case I simply use hot-key that I use for all other duplicate task.
It is Ctrl+D.
Position mouse at transistor/resistor/capacitor and Ctrl+D to place second such symbol (with reference and value positioned the same way).
For schematic with few same blocks - select a circuit block and Ctrl+D to place second block.
Draw wire + wire to bus entry, select them and Ctrl+D several times to get all connections from uC to bus (after duplicate new set is selected so second Ctrl+D gives you next the same set).
Position mouse at net Label and Ctrl+D to have its copy.