I know this topic has been discussed in some previous posts (e.g. Disable autoconnect), but as far as I can see there is no solution for this issue yet:
Is there any way to disable the “autoconnect” feature? I would appreciate the possibility to set the preferences so that I can only create or break connections manually by disabling the following functions:
automatic connections when moving/rearranging symbols/components
automatic connections when accidentally overlapping wires
automatic connections when placing component pins on top of each other
breaking up wires when placing components on top of these wires
In short: is there any way to create or break connections only manually by drawing wires from one point to another?
I have tried the “Draw and Drag at any angle” suggested in a previous post, but that only reduces (but not eliminates) the number of accidental shorts and unwanted connections while sacrificing orthogonal wire routing.
Unfortunately the current behavior is a showstopper for my use-case. I can not judge how much of an effort this would be, but If it is not too much trouble, an option to disable this behavior would be more than welcome
I’ve seen this reported twice in the forum, but I can’t find a bug report anywhere. Please file one (About->Report Bug in the Schematic Editor).
I can’t promise we’ll add a feature if it’s reported, but on the other hand, the dev team will 100% forget about this request if there isn’t a report. I’m not even sure most devs read this forum.
Up to now I refrained from filing a bug report because it isn’t a “bug” in the actual sense. It is rather a feature that is not appreciated by everyone
No problem. If you have an idea of feature you fill a bug report.
On the other side. I didn’t noticed a problem with it. Don’t you use to many wires at your schematics?
I have mainly short strait wires going from IC pins to bus.
My target use-case is a bit like documentation/reverse engineering of junction boxes, not even of complex electronics
First the component symbols are placed, then the connections wired and then the components are rearranged to make the schematic readable and more comprehensive.
And if this rearranging creates unwanted connections, the entire diagram becomes useless.
Now I got it.
45 years ago I was reverse engineering devices that got to my hands to be repaired (like chronocomparator, electronic turn signal flasher, car radio and others).
If instead of drawing wires you will be using labels then you will get schematic not needing rearrangement but probably it is not what you want.
But having wires and labels may be if it happens two wires to be shorted than ERC may be warn of two named nets connected together… and having names at each wire end you will be able to fast find where wires need be disconnected.
I just want to add a voice to say, yes, please implement this!
Trying out KiCad after having used various other design software, this is probably the most baffling and annoying difference I’ve found in the schematic editor. Tidying up and restructuring schematics is such a common operation, and it’s currently very risky one. Do people really drag around multiple symbols and wires with the intent of making new new connections? My guess is that the current functionality gives an undesired result more often than the desired one.
FWIW – I like crossing wires to be autoconnect = OFF. I like to place a explicit junction to join crossing wires, otherwise I want a crossover / jump over.
However ! about half the Altium users I know love auto-junction. I hate it. So, horses for courses…
coming from Altium, I think the Kicad schematic editor works quite well.
Purley out of curiosity may I ask what other packages have you tried ? and what is your use case please ? I ask this so I can visualise what your difficulty is. For me the “current functionality” always results with the desired result and again for me it is with minimum fuss. It concerns me that you results are consistently undesired so the ‘fix’ may not be trivial and will eat up our beloved Dev’s time, and I can’t yet understand the problem (just me I think ) Just wondering if it could be something Kicad can’t do and was never meant to ? or very niche perhaps? Whatever I hope you get the desired result at the end
There’s nothing very special or niche about my schematics. Currently I have something like 20 symbols on a sheet, and I often move them around in small groups to keep the schematic structured and neat. Let’s see if I can upload a picture with some examples:
In the upper example, I selected some symbols and wires to move them upward a little, but failed to include “HIRANGE DRIVE” in the selection. My expectation would be that I could just move that where I want it on its own afterwards. But that’s not the case - now it’s connected to a different net.
In the bottom example, I’m shortening a wire that’s unnecessarily long, but because the wire itself was included in the selection, it made a new connection to a different net. I would have expected that wire to not extend further to the left from its connection point, or at least to leave just a loose end. This issue gets worse when you move around more complex pieces of circuitry.
I’ve used DipTrace, Keysight ADS, Eagle, Pads… I don’t remember how each of them handle this, but I don’t recall this being a problem the way it is in KiCad.
Cheers, I see your point and if this is a bug or any easy fix I am sure it will be addressed but in your first example my reaction would have been “Bugger it !” I would then moved the label up and deleted the unwanted connection, and as you say you understood that there would need to be some corrective work after anyway. This is down to work flow and what your used to really, in the second case I would have said “Damn it” hit the undo Icon and done it again but having said that I wouldn’t have a gate floating around but thats just me. I’m not trying to pick holes in your work or make excuses I’m trying to understand Regarding other packages it might be worth going back to them and reminding your self how they worked or I’m sure someone from the rest of the gang (more experienced) will respond soon and make a fool of me ! I reckon if this was happening to me a lot and was really hurting productivity I might well wonder if Kicad is a suitable package but like I say I haven’t had this problem enough for it to bother me, but I doubt its a bug and if it needs to be a feature or upgrade isn’t for me to say. I hope someone who has used Eagle or Dip Trace jumps in now and clarifies the situation.
You have 100% guarantee it will be not fixed until there will be no bug report about it (can be with your pictures to explain problem).
It happens that I am restructuring my schematics but never got into this problem. My schematics are organised around bus (used only as graphic like it was in V5). At the left of sheet I have microcontroller connected with many its pins to bus. Then on the other side of bus there are blocks connected to bus and then bus goes to the right to have another vertical part to allow to connect to it some next blocks (mainly from right bus side, but sometimes also from left). Blocs are organised that way that I can easily select whole block including bus entries and move it in some other place along bus.
Thanks for chiming in. Yes, this behavior might be less problematic with circuits that differ from mine, perhaps with different workflows as well. Nevertheless, from this thread and the one linked in the main post, it seems clear that other people are struggling with it too.
I think the real question is, do people use this “auto connect” feature to attach one block of circuitry to another one, and does it save effort compared to drawing wires or buses where you want them to go? Except when moving a single unconnected symbol, I don’t see that it would be of great use, but it does create this risk of generating faulty connections.
So yes, if the person who started the thread does not file a ticket for this, I will do it.
Your issue was closed automatically as you didn’t copy there KiCad version information.
‘current automatic functions’ is not enough to let designers know about what version you are speaking.
I don’t know if in such situation you can add lacking information and reopen it or rather have to make a new report.
This discussion and feature request is probably somewhat related to issue #15394:
In my opinion, #15394 is a too “lean” solution (or not a solution, really). A warning is of course better than the schematic editor just randomly and silently connecting previously unconnected wires when dragging components - at least the unsuspecting user gets notified that the schematic editor is doing bad things - but the real solution would be that the schematic editor is aware of connections separately from the location of wires. That is, the user intentionally connects the wires and the schematic editor builds the internal schematic netlist from that, and then when dragging the validity of the already built up netlist is retained and the wires that happen to cross will not automatically connect.
For intentionally crossing wires, I could imagine that in editing wires (NOT when dragging components, like now), you can click on the intersection of two wires and add a connection between them (or remove).
Perhaps, if you are drawing a new wire, and you bring its end to an existing wire (forming a T-shape), when you click it will connect the new wire to the existing one.
But just randomly connecting wires while dragging components is the least desirable option in my experience.
That issue is similar, but I don’t want the automatic connections to be highlighted, I just don’t want them at all.
…which is also probably much easier to implement
) Just wondering if it could be something Kicad can’t do and was never meant to ? or very niche perhaps? Whatever I hope you get the desired result at the end 
Regarding other packages it might be worth going back to them and reminding your self how they worked or I’m sure someone from the rest of the gang (more experienced) will respond soon and make a fool of me ! 
I reckon if this was happening to me a lot and was really hurting productivity I might well wonder if Kicad is a suitable package but like I say I haven’t had this problem enough for it to bother me, but I doubt its a bug and if it needs to be a feature or upgrade isn’t for me to say. I hope someone who has used Eagle or Dip Trace jumps in now and clarifies the situation.