KiCad/C2/Electric-rule-checking-and-Netlist-generation/English

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Title of script: Electric rule check and netlist generation in KiCad

Author: Abhishek

Keywords: schematic, ERC, video tutorial


Visual Cue
Narration
Show slide Dear Friends,

Welcome to the spoken tutorial on Electric rule check and netlist generation in KiCad

Show slide In this tutorial, we will learn

To assign values to components

To perform electric rule check.

And to generate netlist for schematic created

Show slide We are using Ubuntu 12.04 as the operating system .
With KiCad version 2011 hyphen 05 hyphen 25 for this tutorial.
Show slide Basic knowledge of electronic circuits is a pre-requisite for this tutorial.
User should also know how to design circuit schematic in KiCad



For relevant tutorials, please visit the link spoken hyphen tutorial.org



Go to dash home and open KiCad To start KiCad,

Go to top left corner of ubuntu desktop screen.

Click on the first icon i.e, Dash home.

In the search tab write KiCad and press Enter

This will open KiCad main window


Click on EEschema tab.

An Info dialog box appears saying it cannot find schematic.

Click on OK.

Open project1.sch We will use the file project1.sch created earlier.
Go to File menu and click on Open.


Select project1.sch from desired directory.

We will now assign values to components.
Let us assign value to R2 component
Choose Edit field to add value '1M' Keep cursor over R, corresponding to R2 resistor.


Right click and choose Field value


Click on Edit field option.

This will open Edit value field window.
Type 1M and click on OK.


As you can see 1M (i.e., 1 mega ohm) value is assigned to the resistor R2.

Show other components like R1,C I have already assigned values to other components in the similar way.
Next step is to perform electric rule check on this circuit



Click on ERC button Go to top panel of EEschema window.


click on Perform Electric Rules Check button.

This will open the EEschema Erc window.
Click on Test ERC button located at right side of window Click on Test Erc button.
We can see that there are two errors.
Both errors say that the terminals have no power sources.
Show by cursor Click on the Close button.
Hover over green arrows In the schematic, the error nodes are pointed by arrows.
Click on place a power port button Let us connect a power Flag here. So then kicad will know that we are going to connect a power supply here.


For this,

On the right panel, click on Place a power port button.

Now click on the EEschema window to open the component selection window
Click on List All button and you can see list of power notations.
Choose PWR_FLAG and click on Ok.
We will place the PWR_FLAG near Vcc terminal.


Click on the EEschema to place it.

We need two such power flags since there are two errors of such type.
Copy PWR_FLAG using keyboard key 'c' Keep the cursor on the power flag and then press c to copy it.
Place this power flag near the ground terminal.



Now we will connect the power flag with wires. Go to right panel and click place a wire button.


Now connect the power flag to VCC terminal


Similarly connect the power flag to the ground terminal

We will now run the Schematic ERC check once again to confirm.
Click on Perform Electric Rules Check For this, click on Perform Electric Rules Check on the top panel of EEschema window.
This will open the EEschema Erc window.
Click on Test erc button Click on Test Erc button.
Show with the cursor We can see that there are no errors.
Click on Close
Now let us see how to generate netlist.
Netlist gives information about list of components and nodes that connects them together.
We will see the use of netlist as we proceed further in this tutorial.
Click on netlist generation tab For generating netlist, go to the top panel. click on netlist generation button.
This will open up Netlist window.
This window contains tabs which allow you to generate netlist in different formats.
For kicad we will use Pcbnew tab. Keep Default format option checked and click on Netlist button.
Save the netlist file Note that it saves the netlist file with name project1.net


Please note that when the netlist is generated, the file is saved with .net extension.


Click on the Save button.

Let me resize the window.


Click on the Save button.



Netlist file contains information about components in the circuit required for printed circuit board design.
We will see the use of this netlist file in another tutorial.
Save schematic and close it Go to File menu and choose Save Whole Schematic Project to save this schematic.


Go to File menu and choose Quit to close EEschema window


In KiCad main window,

Go to File menu and choose Quit. This will close the KiCad main window.

Show slide In this tutorial we learnt,
To assign values to components
To check and correct for errors in circuit schematic
To generate netlist for circuit.
Show slide * Watch the video available at the following link
  • It summarises the Spoken Tutorial project
  • If you do not have good bandwidth, you can download and watch it


Show slide The Spoken Tutorial Project Team
  • Conducts workshops using spoken tutorials
  • Gives certificates for those who pass an online test
  • For more details, please write to contact at spoken hyphen tutorial dot org


Show slide Spoken Tutorial Project is a part of the Talk to a Teacher project
  • It is supported by the National Mission on Education through ICT, MHRD, Government of India
  • More information on this Mission is available at
  • spoken hyphen tutorial dot org slash NMEICT hyphen Intro


Show slide This script has been contributed

by Abhishek Pawar



This is Rupak Rokade from IIT Bombay, signing off.
  • Thanks for joining.


Contributors and Content Editors

Chandrika