Units not separating pins as it should

[PabloMack]

I am starting to use Units for defining a part with many pins. I gave it 4 Units and checked the box “All Units are not interchangeable”. One guy showed me a screen shot that indicated that this check mark means the opposite (missing the word “not”) in other versions. In any case, if I copy the pin on Unit A then it copies all pins in that location from all Units even though I have that box checked. When I paste, it has all four pins on top of each other. This must be a bug because the units are using the same space but they should represent different pins when units are not interchangeable.

[ML9104]

Apparently, you’re in the Symbol Editor (why not say that in your question?)
The number of “units” means how many separate parts are inside your IC. If your IC really consists of 4 different parts (which I don’t believe), then OK.
“All Units are not interchangeable” is unknown to me.
“All units are interchangeable” means all 4 parts are the same.

Example: go to the 74xx library and open 74LS00. You’ll see that it contains 5 units: 4 gates and one power unit. They are not interchangeable, as the power unit is different.

I strongly suggest you read the documentation instead of relying on “one guy”.

[retiredfeline]

@PabloMack

All Units are not interchangeable

It’s “All units are interchangeable” and unchecked by default in v7 when creating a new symbol. What version KiCad are you running? Always state that in questions.

[mf_ibfeew]

@PabloMack : First: always mention the used kicad-version in your questions - as you already have discovered checkboxes/strings change between versions.

There are two different settings you have to know of.

1. The “All Units are not interchangeable” setting. This belongs to the symbol properties and affects all units. Setting this checkbox is required and a must in your case.
2. Every item in every symbol itself contains a own dedicated “common” checkbox in it’s properties-dialog. So even if you have checked “all units are different” (see above) it’s possible to have some items shared between your different units. This helps for instance for drawing the rectangle of a symbol - with this checkbox checked you have to draw it only once for all units and it appears on the same place on all units.

solution for you: doubleclick on the first pin → get pin properties dialog → unset checkbox “common to all units”. Than copy this pin to different units.

[PabloMack]

I pasted the version information on top of the Symbol Editor panel that I am talking about (see below). I am now also aware that there is a box in the pin editor that is labelled “Common to all Units in Symbol”. I also need to make sure that this box is not checked for the pins that need to be unique. I think that my problem was that I went from 1 to 4 units and changed the check on the Symbol Editor and it confused KiCAD. Once I saved the file and then reloaded it, the problem went away. When I change the number of Units it seems to have some side effects such as copying the current setup for the Unit you have selected into the new Units that didn’t exist before but not for the ones that were previously there. I think you have to save the file and reload it to flush out some of the settings and they are restored when you reload the file.