Schematic Net Property: Voltage

[schlabs]

Hi,
i am splitting as promised:

Feature request List with Various Items

After some months of diary use of kicad i collect some items to improve Kicad. I suspect that is easy say not to all, but at least i will share my experience. 1)Search footprint: When you place a component when you press “R”, the placement tool search automatically inside all libraries and show all “R” materials. But this is not possible on footprint. If i press “0805” the system only search inside the selected library. Will be appreciated that if i write “sot23”, the system adjust the search …

5. Schematic Net Property: Voltage
   Allow assign a voltage for nets. This appear as a text, but for example in cadence LTspice appear in a different color than regular text.
   This can be used also for automatic clearance when pass to PCB.

6. PCB voltage cleareance on schematic: Can be pre-asigned automatically from Schema. in hand is already implemented in mm, maybe a volt value can be helpfull

Add the possibility on the schema allow split the functions between electronic designer and PCB router in two separated people. Making easy keep the project requirement in only one document.

[scandey]

I believe the clearance settings / custom rules and net classes are already stored in one document, the project file. Using the combination of the two, I think you could already do all of what you seek by hand. You can add net class directive “labels” to high voltage nets on the schematic. Once you’ve assigned all of your high voltage nets, you can set the clearances for each of them in the net class settings. (There is a limited number of visible directive “labels”, which seems like a separate issue / feature request).

I’d advocate against any sort of automatic voltage to clearance system personally, since it requires KiCad to take a stance on exactly which set of requirements/materials to use. From my limited experience, it seems like every high voltage board has such different requirements depending on program and materials that it would be difficult to pick a reasonable default for a new user.

That being said, I do like the idea of being able to add custom labels to nets that contain information in addition to net class. Expected peak voltage would be a cool thing to mark in schematic and then be able to reference quickly both in schematic and layout.