Where are all the passives?
I don’t have a single passive with a footprint in the library, no Cs, no Rs or Ls.
The best I have is the non-descript entries in “devices” which have no footprint.
Has my KiCAD installed incorrectly? Is there another 3d party library I should install?
I don’t understand your question. Those are symbols for use in the schematics. A “C” can have any footprint associated with it, but it’s your task to selecet the correct one for your PCB.
Are you one of those users coming from another CAD program where symbols and footprints are combined? In KiCad they are decoupled. You might want to read the Getting Started document instead of assuming how it works.
Potentially guilty as charged, yes my background is CADSTAR, PADS and Altium and I did use KiCAD 2 years ago for a couple of designs, never really got 100% accustomed to KiCAD.
However, I remember less work was needed the last time to get to the point where I can start laying out a board.
Last time (at least from my memory) I could just select a 0201 cap, place it and later define what exact cap I want in the BOM. Same for 0402, 0603 and Rs and Ls. Now it seems I need to define what a 0201 cap, 0402 cap, 0603 cap, 0201 R etc… is in the library. Then I can move on to the next stage of the schematic and then layout.
Am I missing something?
All I want is a schematic/footprint place holder to put in my design, not a specific part. The problem is for whatever reason, I cant find that in KiCAD right now.
No. Just throw down C_Small_US for all your caps in your schematic. When it’s time for layout, do Tools->Assign Footprints and you can associate them with one click per part/group of parts.
Some people do that, create their own libraries with symbols with pre-associated footprints. However another way is to Assign Footprints to the symbols in the schematic before exporting to the PCB editor.
I will look into this, thank you
Short answer: No, no fault. It’s this way by design.
Especially resistors and capacitors are simple generic symbols in KiCad, and they do not have a footprint assigned at all. Instead, KiCad has a bunch of different ways to easily and quickly assign footprints to symbols.
So instead of having 600 different resistors just for their values (I.e. E96 over 6 decades), KiCad just has a single text string that denotes the value of the resistor. And one of the many different footprints can be assigned to a resistor symbol. In my mind it does not make sense to create a whole library just for one or two text stings (value and footprint link) that can be changed.
But that said. KiCad also has support for database driven libraries. In such a database you can create fully specified parts (or maybe “over specified” parts). For a resistor, you can add ordering information, possible substitutes from different manufacturers or shops, etc. KiCad does not provide such a database, but it only provides the interface to a database like that. I’ve read several success stories of people who have connected their pre-existing database (from another EDA suite) to KiCad, and then kept on working with the same parts in KiCad as they were used to in that other program.
This is interesting, I must have done this last time but I can not remember the assign at point of placement or assign footprints process at all.
Thank you all for explaining the different approaches, I do like the fast process this enables.
If you want a large number of a passive, the quickest way is to place one, then Right Mouse Button click the first, which takes you to the Select menu, then use Duplicate.
Now highlight the two, Select > Duplicate, and you have four items. Keep repeating as required.
Or, place one item then move the cursor every three taps of the Enter key.
I tend to do that when placing many of the same component, for example decoupling caps, place one add the footprint, value, etc. then simply Ctrl + D to duplicate it as many times as needed.
Edit, oops, just saw jmk said pretty much the same thing, sorry.
Only partially the same thing. I unfortunately forgot to mention add the footprint first. There is not much worse than having to individually add footprints to twenty capacitor symbols, although these days, using the “Symbol Fields Table” can be quite a savior.
When (for years) we were assembling our PCBs ourselves having in library all resistor values we have in our warehouse helped me to not by case use new value with the effect of missing drawers (or place for new drawers) soon. These were times (90s) when we were changing from 1206 to 0805 and 0603 so managing the warehouse was more complex than later, when we practically only have 0603.
My KiCad library is consistent with my spreadsheet ‘database’ used to generate BOM. When I add a new element, it’s there and then. If I will be writing value ‘by hand’ then at the end of work I will be caught by some elements used having no representation in database.
As now we order PCB from contract manufacturer number of drawers is his and not our problem I consider having only one resistor symbol but everything is already done and as all your resistors just use the same graphic than having some more texts in library is not a big problem. Selecting element you can’t make mistake, but writing its value you have to remember manufactured values.
And you have to use in some cases untypical 1% values and it is hard to remember what exact number was. Instead of having to search somewhere it is just easier if you have this value just in the opened list when you want to add resistor to schematic.
Yes, it does make sense to maintain your own database with preferred parts, but that is something completely different from putting all footprint and value combinations of resistors, capacitors and other passives in KiCad. On top of that, I very much like it that KiCad supports both approaches.
