Put components to Pcbnew as grouped by Eeshema?

Layout
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I am making a MOSFET board basically, and I have an LED, 2 pin header, and 2 resistors for each group.

They are arranged nicely in Eeshema, but they get thrown all into a giant pile when I start the PCB.

Is there a way to have them grouped according to the schematic?

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Sadly there is no way to have footprints aligned the same way as in the schematic. (With inbuilt KiCad functionalities)

For most designs it would not make much sense anyways as the schematic is not really intended to represent the physical layout but an abstract view of the function of your system. (The same physical component can be spread out over a number of sheets for example.)

KiCad does however group footprints by hierarchical sheet. If you use a well made hierarchical design then this should already be enough to find things that belong together. (plus the select from same sheet tool found in the right click context menu will add another option to work with such a design.)

Regarding hierarchical design see: Hierarchical or flat schematic design, what is best for me? (How to deal with multi page schematics?)

There might however be scripts available. So with a bit of luck somebody knows something.

Also very useful is the fact that kicad will highlight the footprint if you click on its symbol. Meaning if you have layout and schematic open side by side you can easily select a specific footprint by clicking on its schematic symbol.

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There is a tool at the bottom of the place menu. I think it will at least unjumble the pile. Don’t know. Never used it because I place things as I go.

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KiCad 5 should already unjumble the pile on import. (was already in pre version 5 nightlies. Would be quite a step back if it is no longer the case.)

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EDIT: Sorry, the thread is about something else… I’m too tired…

For “geographical annotation” see RenumKiCad PCB Update. IIRC @DocumentedDesigns has contacted the dev mailing list and wanted to get it to KiCad proper. I don’t know about the current state.

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For lots of reasons I haven’t started a new board on 5 so I’ll have to check when I do start one. I’ll have to see what those choices do then.

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eelik

This is Brian at Documented Designs. Yes I am still supporting geographical annotation and recently rewrote the utility for GUI. It is up at Github https://github.com/BrianAtDocumentedDesigns/RenumKiCadPCB0400

As I managed to teach myself the relevant development packages I am working to incorporate geographic backannotation into Kicad. I am hopeful this can be done for V6.

regards, Brian

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I ended up just doing the “click to highlight” method. Luckily thee were less than 100 components, it didn’t take too long.

Another reason I love having dual monitors!

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