I have designed a number of small PCB’s using sheets to separate them. All seemed fine until I went to do the PCB layout.
Becuaue it thinks all the components are on the same PCB it links all the earth’s together. Do I need to rename the ground on each sheet different - GND2 GND3 etc. Am I missing a setting?
Sorry if it is obvious but this is my 1st PCB so on a learning curve. Thanks.
Thanks.
No. You’re not missing a setting.
At the moment KiCad only supports one PCB per project, and if you want to combine multiple projects, you have to compromise.
One option is to draw the PCB’s as separate projects, and then use the PCB editor in “Standalone” mode to combine your projects in a panel.
Another method is as you wrote: Do all PCB’s in one KiCad project (each on a separate sheet?) and then use different power symbols for each of the (sub) projects.
The 3D viewer can also get confused and be unable to determine what the PCB outlines are.
Last time I was making one PCB containing many small PCBs was when KiCad was V5.
I used your way (GND2, GND3,…), but the other way I can think of is to have one GND and just ignore that DRC will report some not connected GND islands.
My PCB had one outline so from PCB house point of view it is one PCB with many milled openings.
Here it is how it was looking like:
It’s unclear what you expected to happen. Did you think the fab would deliver the PCB cut up or were you going to hacksaw the big PCB? Did you think it might be cheaper to combine PCBs on a panel? (Maybe not.)
KiCad’s model is one project = one PCB. Hierarchical sheets are for partitioning the schematic and avoiding duplication of sections. Stick to this model until you work out whether panelisation is of use to you.
Thanks all. I have renamed the GND’s and it seems happy enough.
Now to lay it out onto 1 100mm square board…