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KiCAD preferences - Hierarchical or Flat

Chuck(G)

25k Member
Joined
Jan 11, 2007
Messages
44,225
Location
Pacific Northwest, USA
I've never been able to get the hang of the KiCAD style that seems to be prevalent nowadays. That is, hierarchical sheets with isolated components and tags. I use KiCAD as a "flat" design tool, with all pages coming off an (unprinted, component-less) "master" page. I use individual pages to draw connected components. That is, I'm old-school.

Are there many of us still out there?
 
Old school here. Started with pencil on vellum/tape on mylar. I've used a lot of CAD systems over the years.
I'm currently using KiCAD. I use a cross of old and new styles.
Top level drawing has nothing but sheet references on it. Each sheet is a functional block.
labels mostly are off sheet references. lines to connect on sheet.
This avoids flipping between sheets and makes a readable schematic.

joe
 
You forgot white-out and india ink!

Yep. Same here--it reflects my train of thought also. The sheet says what the logic is (supposed to be) doing. If my logic is faulty, then it's mostly a matter of correcting a single sheet. I really don't get the "hierarchical" design idea--it would seem to be harder to follow logic through that.
I do like working from smaller (letter-sized) sheets rather than the old D and E sized drawings.
 
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