(RESOLVED) The routing start point violates DRC - KiCad 8.0 no schematic (Note to others. Always create a schematic)

Layout
1

I have a small board that I wanted to layout. Compact board that I didn’t really need a schematic for so I was doing the board directly in the PCB editor. I have everything laid out where I want the parts. Some are tight but there is clearance so I a not worried about shorts, etc. I added the footprint for some vertical diodes so I can put them next to each other.

Sometimes I get the error “The routing start point violates DRC” when I click on a short trace between two pads that.I had copied and pasted over them. It looks like the end of that short trace isn’t connected to the pad even though the board would probably come out ok.

Other times When I am routing a trace I just can’t connect to the pad I want. Very frustrating. If all the parts were just dropped on the new PCB layout and none came from a schematic why is it limiting what pads I can connect to? Is there a way to set them all the same or turn off that DRC check while routing this particular board?

2

Probably because they don’t have a net name.

Go to Route -> Interactive Router Settings.... Change mode to Highlight Collisions and check Allow DRC Violtions.

Or, take a few extra seconds to create a schematic.

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Thank You! That seemed to get me past where I was stuck. For most boards I plan on doing a schematic first. This one is more of an adapter board with a few parts and with the exception of the routine issue really didn’t need a schematic for this particular board.

In the future if I need to make up any other adapter boards is there a way to set the net names automatically if none are set? I want to learn more about this software and hope to avoid more issues down the road. I had used TraxMaker/CircuitMaker 2000 and primarily just did board layouts in that without schematics. I do like the way everything it integrated with KiCad and did one design with schematics then layout. Then updated the schematic and updated the layout. That went really well. Did a couple small adapter boards with no issues. Then got stuck on this one. But seem to be past that now.

4

If you insist on working without a schematic, you have to disable DRC features.
Drawing the schematic is much quicker in the end, rather than manually naming pad net names and then KiCad will help you not make any silly mistakes.
Come back to your board in a few years time and you have a record of what it was meant to do.

5

The quickest and easiest way is to let Schematic do it.

The Conn_??x?? scheamtic symbols and various connector footprints are a very fast way to create adapter boards.

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I second baldengineer. Drawing the schematic is simply the simplest and quickest way to create the netlist. even if it’s just a PCB with two connectors.

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Next time I will make a schematic even for the simple boards. Thanks.

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Yes. A schematic for something simple is quicker to make than hitting brick walls with the PCB, scratching your head, experimenting with the functions, giving up and asking on the forum, waiting for a reply …

Oh yes.
And on top of all that messing around, if you draw the schematic first, you don’t have to check, double and triple check to make sure your tracks are connected to the right pads. Kicad won’t allow you to connect tracks incorrectly. So you can spend all your concentration on drawing the tracks.
:grinning:

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In the past my prior layout tools (Traxmaker/CircuitMaker) didn’t need a schematic. I have done a couple other simple PCB layouts with KiCad prior to this one and both went smoothly. Just ran into troubles with this one.

Now that I know KiCad REALLY expects a schematic I will do that from now on.

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