Paging/scrolling through multi-page (hierarchical) schematics

Schematic
#1

Hi folks,

I’m having my first experiences with multi-page schematics (i.e. hierarchical). I just cleaned up a messy single-page schematic by turning it into a flat, hierarchical schematic with several pages.

Is there an easier way to navigate through the pages than using the hierarchy menu, the “up” icon, or double-clicking on sheets from the root? I was hoping there would be shortcut keys that simply allowed me to page forward/backward, but I haven’t found any. Everything appears to be mouse-click driven.

(There is a shortcut for the up icon (ALT+BACK), but that only makes getting to the root sheet easier.)

Thanks!

Steve

#2

There is a Schematic Editor / View / Hierarcy Navigator and you can assign a hotkey to bring up that dialog. In KiCad V7.0.0-rc1 it has the hotkey [Ctrl + h] assigned to it by default, but it’s unassigned in KiCad V6.

If you go to: Schematic Editor / Preferences / Preferences / Hotkeys and then search for “page”, then you have an option to set page numbers and navigate to a page, but there are no hotkeys assigned by default, so you have to set them first. This is quite common in KiCad, About half or more of the possible hotkeys do not have a key combination assigned by default.

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#3

Thanks for the help - this sounds like exactly what I was hoping for!
Unfortunately I’m having trouble getting it to work…

I can assign a hotkey but nothing happens when I press it. Also, it’s not specific about which page it’s assigning the hotkey to, so I assumed it was the current page. When that didn’t work, I tried selecting a page before opening the hotkeys dialog, but that didn’t work either.

I’m sure I’m missing something simple. Any idea where I’m going wrong?

Thanks

Steve

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#4

This hotkey is gone in v7, so maybe it was’nt functional in v6 either.

for v6:

  • Preferences–>Schematic-editor–>Editing Options–> check “Keep hierarchy navigator open”
  • than open hierarchy navigator
  • click on any subsheet in the hierarchy navigator → subsheet opens
  • you can now navigate with cursor up/down in the hierarchy navigator as long as the navigator contains the focus

for v7:

  • hierarchy navigator is predefined as permanently visible (on/off-switchable) side-panel
  • open hierarchy navigator
  • click on any subsheet in the hierarchy navigator → subsheet opens
  • you can now navigate with cursor up/down in the hierarchy navigator as long as the navigator contains the focus
#5

Hey thanks - very much appreciated. This is certainly easier than what i was doing. Thank you.

That said, it would be really nice if the ‘navigate to page’ hotkeys are someday functional. Hopefully this feature will be added. But it’s a nice-to-have rather than a showstopper.

Have a good one!

Steve