I’m sorry, but in the symbol editor, where do I see the hidden value? I don’t see it anywhere in the settings either here or in the schematic when I place the symbol.
You can’t just change the name, you have to make a new symbol for each different potential. See the pin definition here and note it is set to NOT visible.
But that’s what I’ve done! IE I have created a new symbol, and then changed its value. This is apparent in my last screenshot, where I have changed it (“Value” and “Symbol Name”) to 3V, but overlooked changing the “VCC” in the description.
Sorry, am I also meant to be changing something when I finally pull the port out of the library and place it on the schematic?
You have shown the SYMBOL properties, not the PIN properties.
Would that be the Pin properties in the Symbol editor, or the schematic editor?
In the symbol editor. But you will need to save your modified symbol in your own library.
I’ve already done that (saved various port pins in my own library several days ago). Where do you go to see the Pin setup (as opposed to Symbol setup)?
Aha, wait a moment, I have found a little icon in the menu called “Pin Table” and that lists “VCC”
None of this comes up if you right click on the symbol itself.
Hi,
you need to change the value and the pin name, as John_Pateman said.
You can change the value here:
And the name here:
Of just hover over the greyed out pin (the +4v) in my screenshot and press ‘e’
Yes, thank you!! It’s that second table I wasn’t seeing before. I’ve been scouring documentation and forums etc. but nobody mentions the Pin Table where you have to change that Name as well.
I just edited it in my schematic by right clicking and choosing the option to open the symbol editor. I just undid it too, as it only changes it for that instance. I’ll go into the library proper and change them there instead.
Thanks for your time guys, much appreciated. As I say, I am enjoying using Kicad (especially this new Version 6) but it still has a few UI quirks to sort out, this being one of them. Overall I can’t complain though, as it’s an outstanding piece of CAD software, so thanks again.
if others find this thread in the future:
look also at the eeschema-online help, section library/power symbols.
https://docs.kicad.org/5.1/en/eeschema/eeschema.html#power-symbols
The two important steps for modifying power symbols (change Pin name and symbol value)
are mentioned.
Good reference, thank you.
I have just updated all the Power Ports used on my schematic, updated my PCB netlist from the schematic and everything is making a lot more sense now!
== And this forum software probably needs some extra *&^%$#@! to satisfy some arbitrary 20 character limit.
I also fell into this trap when I was designing my first KiCad PCB. Then I supposed that the same technik that was used for hidden power pins in some (old TTL) libraries was used to design power symbols. If you think that way it is obvious that you should not change the AND gate name but its power pin name.
It’s actually due to the trick used to make power symbols global, not a user interface thing per se. Perhaps a future version of KiCad should show a warning if one tries to edit the text, explaining that this is not sufficient to make a new power symbol.
I hit this trap when I realiased that in my design the HC TTL chips would work from 2V to 6V so the symbol +5V was a misnomer. Being a sticker for detail, I edited the power symbol. After the edit I saw that the net name was still +5V and vaguely remembered the background. So I had to replace all the +5V symbols on the schematic with VCC.
Nope.
The proper way to handle it is to just have an editable field, and have that work as expected.
It does not have to be complicated. A “new implementation” of a power symbol could just be a global label with some fancy extra graphics. In fact, I have resorted to using global labels but rotated 90 degrees instead of power symbols in a few schematics.
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Well it’s up to the devs how they want to handle this, whether to continue this “trick” or devise a new implementation. It’s inevitable that any sufficiently complex piece of technology will have traps somewhere.
I completely agree with you here. Having to use OrCAD, Eagle, Altium… Power symbols are simple… you change the name and the net name changes, no need to make a new symbol with a hidden name that has to be changed as well. Being a Hardware guy this seems like a simple thing to do in SW, but it appears not.
As can be seen in the issue linked to by Paul, it was waiting for the file format change and then not implemented because of the normal lack of manpower. Now when the new file format has settled I hope they fix this. I don’t see this current implementation a compromise or a quirk which we have to have, it’s just totally unnecessary.
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