kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Brian Piccioni <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Eeli

Thanks for the explanation. I suspect it will need a re-think - or at 
least some modification.

I am almost finished the "to do" list for geographic re-annotation. One 
thing that occurred to me is that the "re-annotate selected" would be 
very useful for duplicating design elements. For example, lets say we 
have 4 output amplifiers with connectors etc.. We can route one then 
copy and paste the other 3, then re-annotate them to correspond to the 
schematic. After all, we have nifty new "back annotation" functions!

Except back-annotation breaks when the /path field is duplicated.

I don't know enough to propose a fix but I can imagine users will have 
problems (and generate bug reports) when they do copy and paste inside 
PCBNew.

I think optionally removing the path might be a good idea - or, simply 
removing it from duplicated/pasted footprints. Of course I am probably 
missing something.

Brian



On 2020-02-15 6:07 p.m., Eeli Kaikkonen wrote:
> It's the symbol ID from the schematic. This defines the connection 
> between the symbol in the schematic file and the footprint in the 
> layout file.
>
> Indeed I have intended to ask about copying this in pcbnew. There's no 
> way to change (remove) it in pcbnew. Once a footprint is pasted or 
> duplicated it's bind to the same symbol as it's originator footprint. 
> As far as I can see there's one use case for this when copying from 
> the same board: having several alternative physical components for one 
> functional component (symbol). But this isn't obvious nor is it clean IMO.
>
> It's probably useful if the corresponding components are copied from 
> another project to both eeschema and pcbnew. But inside one project 
> this may be more confusing than useful. Maybe it should be handled 
> like copying/pasting symbols and reference designators is handled now 
> in 5.99: with Paste Special options, trying to find the best 
> alternative for the default paste.
>
> And/or there should be a way to reset this field. The footprints added 
> by the "Add a footprint" function don't have "path".
>
>
> On Sun, Feb 16, 2020 at 12:30 AM Brian Piccioni 
> <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     Hello
>
>     In the "Kicad File Formats" PDF (and in KicadPCB files) there is
>     (path /5127A011)  where the number after the slash usually
>     changes. I don't see any where this field is described in the
>     documentation.
>
>     It seems that if I copy and past a symbol in PCBNew the "(path /"
>     field is duplicated so I end up with two components with the same
>     "(path /" causes, for example "Error: Pcb footprints R100 and R8
>     linked to same symbol" error on back annotation.
>
>     This, in turn, causes problems with geographic reannotation.
>
>     So, can somebody explain what (path / is?
>
>     Thanks
>
>
>     Brian Piccioni
>
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