New to KiCad, new to most everything here. I’ve tinkered in the past, but am finally working on designing and putting circuits together. I’ve been using Fritzing to do my breadboarding diagrams, but when I ask for help, often those who know what they’re doing are using KiCad, so I’m trying to learn it now.
I’m trying to start with a simple circuit, not one I need tested at this point. I want to be able to use something to show inputs and outputs, like this (I wanted to include more, but it only lets me use one embedded item):
What is this kind of tag called and how do I add one with the label on it to my circuit? Is it an actual component I can find in the library? Or is it something I access in some other way? While I’m going through documentation, I don’t see anything about this - at least that I’ve found so far.
They are called labels, in general. The specific style you show is called a global label in KiCad, and can connect things together across multiple sheets. They are not components (symbols) from a library, you add them with dedicated tools (on the right toolbar or in the Place menu)
A tip:
don’t use global labels for inputs/outputs to your circuit. That’s not what they’re for. They are intended for connections inside your design and will throw errors when you run an ERC.
Use something like “Conn_01x01_Socket” instead.
Okay, thanks! For now, I just want to use them in a simple part of a circuit so I can ask for help with it.
Useful and helpful. Thank you. For this ONE instance, as mentioned above, it’s for a quick sketch, but I get the point you’re making. To get this sketch done today, since I have the info on this, I’ll use it because it’s quick and simple, but tomorrow a lot of the day is set aside so I can study the docs and learn how to do use KiCad. I’ve used Fritzing for the work I’ve already been doing. It’s quick and simple, but has serious limits. (But it’s nice it does have a breadboard design editor!) But from what I hear, I think KiCad will be much more useful in the long run, so I might as well get into it now rather than try to change later and have a lot of designs in Fritzing that I can’t easily move into KiCad.
Thanks - not knowing what it was or the right name, I had no idea how to find it. I get it and get that while it would work for just something quick to do a quick sketch, that it won’t work for that in the long run, so I won’t be using it other than this one time, to get an image done quickly. So I’ll be learning the right way to do things in KiCad over the next few days.
Welcome to KiCAD. I think you’ll find no comparison between the two, KiCAD is a full professional design tool. A bit like moving from a Vespa to an MX-5.
Enjoy.
There is excellent online documentation at https://docs.kicad.org/ You might get better results than only poking around, though it’s also useful to experiment.
I already picked up on that. Yes, Fritzing is easy for a newbie like me to do a quick breadboard, but I found, for instance, limited components and only few values for resistors (I think only 1 or 2), but to sketch out my breadboard layout, that was doable. KiCad is a bit above my skill level, but I can tell it’s something that, once I learn, I’ll find much more powerful and useful than what I can already see is a limited program. I’m not saying it’s bad - just that I can already see myself outgrowing it rather soon. And I think KiCad will force me to not only take time to learn it, but that, along the way, I’ll likely learn a lot more about schematics, design, and other issues, as I study how to do things in KiCad more.
I noticed you were using a whole set of docs from the directory given in the screenshot of your post - but that’s on your drive, so thanks for the link. I was thinking of just the main instructions on how to use the schematic part of the program. There’s a LOT there, which is a good sign of just how much this program offers - but, of course, that means there’s a lot to learn and that it’s easy to miss things here and there.
It’s the forum software that’s generating any thumbnails. Nothing to do with my drive.
The schematic editor docs are just one click further. It might be useful to start with the Getting Started document for an overview. Begin at the beginning if you’re a beginner as they say.
