I’m learning to make pcb’s and following along with a guide.
I get to annotate schematic and then no “loading footprint libraries”
and no “assign footprints”. Have things changed or are they just not necessary? After that, I go into creating the PCB screen and it doesn’t pull out the switch footprints. long story short I end up with this. I was also able to set my preferences.
thanks for any help in the matter.
You need to open symbols properties for each symbol and assign a footprint to that symbol.
Hotkey “E”, then click in the Value square beside properties, then on the three books at the right, then scroll through the libraries to find a suitable footprint to assign to each symbol.
Other ways to assign footprints are:
still missing the mark- could you please give a bit more detail?
thanks for all your help.
What guide?
These guides are good, especially the “Getting Started”.
Very basically, the Kicad workflow is:
Create a Schematic using symbols and wires, assign footprints to those symbols, annotate the schematic (in tools), update PCB from schematic (in tools). After all those, you have a PCB with all the footprints bunched together on the PCB. You then draw the PCB outline, move all the footprints to where you wish on the PCB and then join all the footprints with copper tracks. As I wrote, this is a very basic workflow.
You need to give each symbol on your schematic a footprint. There are many ways.
Hover mouse over symbol then try my and Paul’s methods. Pick which suits. Try hotkey E first or hotkey F.
F will show an empty line titled Footprint, with three books at the right hand end. E will show a similar empty line, which, when clicked on, will show the three books also.
Click on the books. This will open all the footprint libraries. Find the footprint you want for that symbol and double left click on that footprint.
That footprint will now appear in the blank space to the left of the three books.
This means you have associated (connected) a footprint with a symbol.
Repeat for all symbols.
Then “Annotate schematic”, then “Update PCB from Schematic”
Open the PCB and start designing your PCB.
Since V7 I practically not use it as any new symbol placed at schematic automatically gets the next free reference number.
I like to select reference numbers myself because I can convey additional information or implement conventions. For example I number the bypass capacitor for IC U12, C12. If bulding a stereo amplifier, I make the left channel numbers 1nn and the righ channel numbers 2nn. Similarly for a multi-digit display.
It’s defintely permitted to have gaps in the numbers. There’s no requirement for the sequence to start at 1 and have no gaps till the maximum.
Our newbee member knows very little about Kicad and seems to be following a youtube video of dubious quality.
I don’t think there is much point in introducing more advanced stuff when he/she doesn’t know how to associate a footprint with a symbol.
Doing as I suggest will at least give her/him a PCB with footprints attached by ratlines.
Probably best if he/she gets the very basics under control before we teach her/him some tricks of the trade. 
I do it as the last design step when whole PCB is designed, all 0Rs already added, all capacitors that would be next to each other deleted. But I only want numbers to increase from schematic block to schematic block. So at the end I take block by block from my schematic and move them out of sheet in order I want and then annotate all and move blocks back at their original locations.
At my PCBs main microcontroller always gets U1 reference and it has 4 bypass capacitors (at each of 4 its sides - see AtXmega pin order) so I can’t follow your way right from the very beginning 
At schematic level I also don’t know. If needed I would find it but never needed as all my symbols have footprints already assigned.
I started from reading all pdfs before even installing KiCad for the first time. Thanks to that I knew that it is (it was for V4) better to not install KiCad (at Windows) in default folder as Windows was against saving there some default configuration. Since V6 I install KiCad in default ‘Program Files’ folder.
You’re probably hyper-conservative (including your small inductors). These days practically all the high frequency signals stay on the chip, an advantage of integrated RAM, flash memory and I/O with modern MCUs, as well as low current consumption, which make them forgiving of what experimenters do.
For you and me, learning Kicad was easy; we had been using computer programs to design PCBs for years.
My first program was “Protel for DOS” on two floppy discs with a computer running Windows 3.1.1.
That program boasted “Over 1000” symbols and footprints 
Really, all we had to do with Kicad was learn the “Kicad way” of doing the same old stuff.
This OP is starting from scratch.
Yes.
Thanks to that when in 2004 I went to lab to do EMC tests for the first time (we, Poland joined EU in 2004 so CE became to be mandatory) they said that in their history I am the first one who just came and passed all tests for the first time. That saved us more money than all ferrite beads and capacitors I used in our designs costed.
Not exactly. Even with small average current consumption there are big current pulses on internal state changing. During EMC tests you easily see the microcontroller main frequency and its harmonics.
It’s not a coincidence that these microcontrollers have VCC,GND pin pairs at all sides and need blocking capacitor be used at each of them.
I know that and I’m jealous, because electronics is now at a much higher level than it was when I started. It is much more interesting and can do more.
You deal with very serious MCUs (lots of electrical power as you indicate, but not so much computing power) which are far beyond my pay (what’s that? 
) grade and that of many others. We use MCUs with only one VCC and one GND pin. But then you do the stuff for a living while it’s just a pastime for me.
You are only jealous because your past experience means you can fully appreciate what there is now.
Very serious - 8 bit
From what you write I (we) don’t know where is the problem source.
I would start from checking if you can see any footprint at all.
From main KiCad window select ‘Footprint Editor’.
Do you have the library list at left side of window?
Select Resistor_SMD library and R_0603_1608Metric footprint.
Do you see it in edit window?
If yes then go back to schematic and try to assign this footprint to R1 for example and then see if this one error disappeared when you Update PCB from Schematic.
I posted:
And the first two are literal navigation though the menu of KiCad’s Schematic Editor. If you do need more detail, then a beginners course is the way to go.You can ask more questions if you get stuck there, but you have to show you put in some effort yourself and ask more direct questions.
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