How do you get the ERC to pass?

On Sun, May 04, 2014 at 09:21:17PM -0000, gratefulfrog wrote:
> 1. It crashes quite often, but restarting usually recovers most of what was done.

That's very strange. It shouldn't crash.

> 2. I made the schematic as far as step 44 in the tutorial, but now the ERC produces a bunch of errors which I cannot seem to fix.. The report is below (making it crashed the application as well).

The usefulness of eeschema ERC is debatable... pcbnew's DRC is fine,
however.

> I would really appreciate some help... Is there a mailing list or an IRC or something - French is fine too.

The kicad-users mailing list.

> 3. Does anyone use this tool for serious PCB design? I am not sure that I want to spend the effort to learn it if it is alpha tes software - I'm not trying to insult anyone, I do appreciate that it may work fine and I don't know what I'm doing...

I have more than 10 board (almost 20) in full production (mostly two
sides, a couple of 4 layers, too). Other people did very complex
designs too (AFAIK at least an 8 layers)

It's not Altium or PADS but IMHO could beat Eagle blindfolded; also
can't beat the price:P

--
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl

Thanks for taking the time to answer!

So, if the schema editor is not of any use, what is the workflow? All I
want to do is create some 4 layer PCBs.

Is there any document which describes this?

Also, it would be nice to know the URL of the mailing list to sign up.

Thanks,
Bob

On Sun, May 4, 2014 at 11:31 PM, Lorenzo Marcantonio <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #248156 on KiCad changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Lorenzo Marcantonio proposed the following answer:
> On Sun, May 04, 2014 at 09:21:17PM -0000, gratefulfrog wrote:
> > 1. It crashes quite often, but restarting usually recovers most of what
> was done.
>
> That's very strange. It shouldn't crash.
>
> > 2. I made the schematic as far as step 44 in the tutorial, but now the
> ERC produces a bunch of errors which I cannot seem to fix.. The report
> is below (making it crashed the application as well).
>
> The usefulness of eeschema ERC is debatable... pcbnew's DRC is fine,
> however.
>
> > I would really appreciate some help... Is there a mailing list or an
> IRC or something - French is fine too.
>
> The kicad-users mailing list.
>
> > 3. Does anyone use this tool for serious PCB design? I am not sure
> that I want to spend the effort to learn it if it is alpha tes software
> - I'm not trying to insult anyone, I do appreciate that it may work fine
> and I don't know what I'm doing...
>
> I have more than 10 board (almost 20) in full production (mostly two
> sides, a couple of 4 layers, too). Other people did very complex
> designs too (AFAIK at least an 8 layers)
>
> It's not Altium or PADS but IMHO could beat Eagle blindfolded; also
> can't beat the price:P
>
> --
> Lorenzo Marcantonio
> Logos Srl
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156/+confirm?answer_id=0
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

On Sun, May 04, 2014 at 09:46:38PM -0000, gratefulfrog wrote:
> So, if the schema editor is not of any use, what is the workflow? All I
> want to do is create some 4 layer PCBs.

The schema editor IS useful, it's the ERC feature that's not so
useful...

> Is there any document which describes this?

The manual IIRC describes the workflow, which is pretty conventional. In short:

eeschema: schematic -> cvpcb: assign footprints -> pcbnew: layout

> Also, it would be nice to know the URL of the mailing list to sign up.

Start here

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kicad-users/info

There are also user groups in italian and spanish (don't know about
french)

--
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl

Hi,

I appreciate you are trying to help me, but this is not really helping
me... Your answers really suppose a level of expertise that I do not have
with your tool.

Since I don't know how to use the tool, I tried to follow the tutorial.
But, it doesn't really work (I mean beyond being out of date) and it is a
real struggle. On top of that the crashing makes it painful.

I somehow feel that the tool may be the one I need, but it is really hard
to get into it with no decent tutorial or real help...

I am now giving up with Kicad and going to give pcb a try...

Sorry to be so pessimistic, but I have spent all the time I can afford on
it and not made enough progress to justify continuing.

Thanks anyway,
Bob

On Mon, May 5, 2014 at 12:02 AM, Lorenzo Marcantonio <
<email address hidden>> wrote:

> Your question #248156 on KiCad changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156
>
> Status: Open => Answered
>
> Lorenzo Marcantonio proposed the following answer:
> On Sun, May 04, 2014 at 09:46:38PM -0000, gratefulfrog wrote:
> > So, if the schema editor is not of any use, what is the workflow? All I
> > want to do is create some 4 layer PCBs.
>
> The schema editor IS useful, it's the ERC feature that's not so
> useful...
>
> > Is there any document which describes this?
>
> The manual IIRC describes the workflow, which is pretty conventional. In
> short:
>
> eeschema: schematic -> cvpcb: assign footprints -> pcbnew: layout
>
> > Also, it would be nice to know the URL of the mailing list to sign up.
>
> Start here
>
> https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kicad-users/info
>
> There are also user groups in italian and spanish (don't know about
> french)
>
> --
> Lorenzo Marcantonio
> Logos Srl
>
> --
> If this answers your question, please go to the following page to let us
> know that it is solved:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156/+confirm?answer_id=2
>
> If you still need help, you can reply to this email or go to the
> following page to enter your feedback:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156
>
> You received this question notification because you asked the question.
>

On 05/04/2014 05:35 PM, gratefulfrog wrote:
> Question #248156 on KiCad changed:
> https://answers.launchpad.net/kicad/+question/248156
>
> Status: Answered => Open
>
> gratefulfrog is still having a problem:
> Hi,
>
> I appreciate you are trying to help me, but this is not really helping
> me... Your answers really suppose a level of expertise that I do not have
> with your tool.

The launchpad questions funnel into the developer's mailing list. You are not talking
with people yet that can speak at your level and hold your hand.

Lorenzo said "join the user's mailing lis"t. That is the best advice you can get right
now, follow it, and ask all your questions again there.

This is your best path forward. KiCad is the right tool. You may not be using the right
version, they can tell you more on the user's mailing list.

This is your shortest path to success.