Netlist not populating properly

I am making keyboard matrix that uses a bunch of 5mm smd push switches, an arduino micro, and a pimoroni trackball. All part symbols and their footprints were made by me and I was able to get everything connected properly in the schematic editor. The issue is that when I export the netlist and import it into pcbnew, none of the smd switches show air wires connected to the arduino through holes. Furthermore I cannot connect a trace from any smd pad to any through hole manually. routing otherwise works from smd pad to smd pad and from hole to hole. Since I can’t figure out a way to force KiCad to let me just connect the two solder points manually this is holding up my project. Any troubleshooting help would be greatly appreciated.

All relevant files are linked below if anyone wants to look at them

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Ikr2VJlgoDNqqHB-C5xNLhwwlC22oxij

You did not include the cache lib. This file is part of the schematic! Never ever leave it out. See What are the cache and rescue libs and how does the schematic rescue dialog work? (KiCad version 5.x and earlier) This file is the least that we require to be able to look at your files

Sorry, I just added the cache.lib. I’ve never used kicad before and honestly I have almost no experience in EE. I’m more of a software guy

The symbol of your adruino has no footpritn assigned. See error message of the “update pcb from schematic” dialog.


You state you are a software designer. Well then abstraction should be a concept that you should know quite well.
The schematic should be an abstract view of the function of your system. Which means a switch gets an abstract symbol not one that looks like the physical part. Similarly the use of labels can massively improve readability.

You might want to read Tutorial: Introduction to PCB design with KiCad version 5.1 (Getting Started) and possibly also Hierarchical or flat schematic design, what is best for me? (How to deal with multi page schematics?) (I suspect you as a software engineer will like the hierarchical design principle as it is very similar to object-oriented design)

Also your symbols for q1 and U1 are broken (i suspect there will be more). You did not assign pin numbers which means all of the pins get the same number and that creates the problem that all nets connected to any of these pins are connected with each other.

Which means also take a look at

Ah, I didn’t understand the significance of the pin numbers/vs pin name when I was originally making the parts. I will mull through some of this stuff and see where that gets me. Thanks for your help and for catching the missing arduino footprint issue.

The pins not having a number designation seems to have been the root problem as far as the air wire connections were concerned. Thanks.

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