I could use some help with a Kicad v9. It’s getting beyond my basic knowledge, but I
hope to learn from it.
It seems much advice on the internet is outdated referring to old versions.
But I need step by step guidance on how to go about changing track widths.
In Schematic Setup I have set net classes to Power (0.508 mm) and default (0.3048 mm). Why those sizes I do not know, but why does it say wire thickness ?? then what is Bus thickness ??
I have set Net Class - Power to include VCC VDD and GNDREF, with nothing for default net class.
In the schematic it shows wires set to VCC and GNDREF, with all others left to be default.
These thicknesses are your preferences for your schematic drawing. To make your schematic easier to read, if you wish, you can have different line/bus/whatever widths and colors. These settings, as the title reads, are for the Schematic only. They have nothing to do with the PCB.
To set your track widths using net classes, you first update your PCB from your Schematic then open your PCB and go to File > Board Setup > Net Classes and fill in all the details much as you did for your wires etc. in your schematic.
ERC is not very smart. It can be useful for finding drawing mistakes, not design mistakes. One of its tests is that inputs must have outputs connected to each other. One reason being to help prevent different outputs being connected to each other because of a wiring mistake.
If you are happy with your drawing and don’t like the warnings, turn whatever warnings you don’t like off at Schematic Setup > Electrical Rules > Violation Severity.
Much more information for the use of Kicad can be found at https://docs.kicad.org/. This information source is kept up to date and is vastly superior to most of the other information on the internet.
You can also show these columns in the net class settings in the schematic editor by right-clicking on the column headers. That will show a list of all net class settings, and you can add the PCB ones to the displayed list.
Thanks, I’d forgotten that function.
Also, there is no need to update the PCB before going to the Net Classes in the Board setup, but the OP seemed a bit lost and I thought that may help.
