Electronics > KiCad

Beware when moving stuff around

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JPortici:
one of my pet peeves of kicad is the impossibility of dragging multiple elements on the PCB, and dragging any component is useless anyway as tracks will happily overlap each other and sorry you can't drag anymore.
So you move, but if you are not 100% extra careful, or you don't unroute/reroute every time move can result to this.



Connected but not really connected, i caught it by accident. Would have been really fun to debug. DRC doesn't help me here, how can i catch them other than a manual review every time?

(Kicad v7.0.8 )

jpanhalt:
I don't use KiCad yet, but as I understand what you said, it is a serious flaw. 

1) I assume that "pin" was attached to the track before you moved it.  Are you sure?  In Eagle it is possible to have a pin and net look connected, when they are not in the schematic.  ERC finds them usually.  Even if connected properly in the schematic, it is possible when  routing not to have them fully routed (i.e., a little segment of airwire remains).  Eagle pings when the route is connected.  What happens if a pin is not connected to a track and you move it?  The airwire becomes visible and stays connected to both pin and track.  I can understand things not being connected in the schematic or board, as that the the user's fault.  But in the board to have something disconnect when it is moved would be a disaster.  Is that what happened?

2) In Eagle, when one moves previously routed devices, the tracks stay attached.  If they cross another track, then DRC reports it.  Are you saying that you cannot move a previously routed device if the tracks cross?  That sounds like some "we know better than you" feature added by Microsoft.  Presumably, the workaround is to convert back to an airwire before moving.  What a PITA that would be.  What I frequently do is convert to airwire ("rip-up") only a segment of the track attached to a device I am moving.  I then handle ripup/rerouting as needed.

EDIT:
If Benta's supposition is correct, what you see with respect to lack of connections is what Eagle should do too.  Without a schematic, a board design is similar to a picture rather than an electrical design.  Although, the absence of airwires is not always proof there is no schematic.  I sometimes hide certain nets  (e.g., GND and VCC) to reduce clutter when routing signal.

Doctorandus_P:
KiCad does check for this. All you have to do is add the minimum required width in: PCB Editor / File / Board Setup / Design Rules / Constraints and then fill in a value for the minimum connection width


Note that this does not generate a DRC violation if the connected track itself has a width that is narrower than the width you enter. For that you have the use Minimum track width entry box just above it.

Benta:
Is this a PCB without schematic and netlist? It looks that way.
Otherwise you'd at least have ratsnest lines.

LazyJack:
Why are you not getting ratsnest lines? You should be. Are you sure your schematic is ok?
Cleanup should remove the dangling traces.

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