Wish: Backannotate option for net names
Description
When importing a PCB into KiCad, be it from Altium or PCAD, one gets the original netnames in PCBnew. Later on, one might draw the schematic oneself in EEschema matching all symbol references. Then, one can use the nice 'Backannotate icon' to copy all the footprints into the drawn symbols. To fully synchronize the schematic with the PCB, one has to click finally on Update PCB from schematic, and probably flip a couple of resistances (pads 1 and 2) to avoid DRC issues. This works fine, however, this causes the original netnames to be changed, which in some cases is not advisable for verification purposes with the original drawings and PCBs.
It would be nice to have a second "Backannotate" button that does not take a CMP file but a netlist, and creates Net-labels at each pin so that the nets are named in EEschema according to what is in the PCB. It does not need to look fancy in the schematic, I know it is ugly to add net labels all around in the schematic wires, but in some cases it is needed,
Steps to reproduce
- Import a simple PCB from PCAD or Altium with net names
- Click on File, Archive Footprints, Create New Library
- Tools, Update FP from library, All Footprints on Board
- File, Export, CMP association file
- Draw the simple PCB symbols and wires in EEschema
- Click on Backannotate based on the CMP file
- Go to the PCB, click on Update PCB from schematic
- Fix a couple of DRC errors by flipping the resistances/capacitors in the schematic and Update again
- Check that netnames have been replaced with respect to the original PCB.
KiCad Version
Application: Pcbnew
Version: 5.1.5-52549c5~86~ubuntu18.04.1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.0.4
libcurl/7.58.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1 zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.4 libpsl/0.19.1 (+libidn2/2.0.4) nghttp2/1.30.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.15.0-72-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.22
Boost: 1.65.1
OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
Curl: 7.58.0
Compiler: GCC 7.5.0 with C++ ABI 1011
Build settings:
USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
USE_WX_OVERLAY=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=ON
KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
KICAD_SPICE=ON