Way to see pin names in Pcbnew?

I am trying to do some very simple layout with Pcbnew. I don’t want to go through the whole process of making a whole schematic and defining my nets. I just want to use Pcbnew to drop in the footprints and then do the wiring. It would be much easier if I can see the names of the pins of the ICs. I could always pull out the datasheet but it would be cool if Pcbnew can automatically do it, especially if the text of the names rotates to allow for reading if the footprint is rotated.

I’ve look all over the settings and can’t seem to find something like this. Is it just not possible?

Thank you.

In kicad footprints and symbols are seperate. pcbnew does not know how the pin of the symbol is called. It only has the information contained in the footprint.

The only thing you will be able to see is the pin number. And also the netname assigned to the pin. (in open gl at least.)
But without a schematic you don’t really have nets.

By the way: If the schematic is really this easy it should be done quite fast. Drawing the schematic will allow you do know what you did in years to come. It also makes it a lot easier to share your work with others.

Edit: I just had an idea.
You could make special footprints where you put the pin name in the pin number field. (This field is actually not limited to numbers.)
But avoid special chars. limit yourself to a-z;A-Z;0-9. I’m not sure if “-” or “_” are ok.
But i think this is more work than creating the schematic in the first place.

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As @Rene_Poschl wrote, footprints placed in PCBnew have NO KNOWLEDGE of what they’re supposed to represent.
They’re just pads, soldermask and silkscreen for all that matters.

Not even the nets created by the schematic will have that information. It’s only (if populated) in the components (symbols) pin label fields.

So this is correct (unless you want to crawl down that rabbit hole @Rene_Poschl showed you with making special footprints).