Kicad/eeschema/Hierarchical Sheets

Using hierarchical sheets

While creating a PCB with increased complexity it is often desirable to use hierarchical sheets, for many reasons including but not limited to readability, and division of asset creation between many developers.

<place image here - hierarchical menu items with descriptions>

File:Hierarchal menu icons.png

Menu Items for Hierarchal Sheets

Placing an existing schematic drawing into a hierarchical sheet

After making a schematic drawing, placement within a root schematic is achieved using the following technique.

1. Click "Place Hierarchical Sheet" and drag the bounding box to the desired size as shown.
2. Edit the Sheet Info menu changing the file name to the existing schematic drawings name, this drawing should be in the same directory as the root schematic. The sheet name is an arbitrary value which can be any name of your choosing.
3. After placement of the Hierarchical Sheet one can click within the sheet border to access the schematic drawing.
4. If Hierarchical Labels have not been made on the sheet now is the time to make these connections. A Hierarchical Label works like a regular schematic Label with one difference: they connect two schematic sheets.
5. Returning to the root schematic you must now import (figure 2) and add (figure 3) the labels.
   1. To Import pin labels you must click import pin labels until all pins have been imported. This can be achieved by right clicking (Ctrl+Click On Mac OS X) the schematic frame, and selecting import pins.
   2. Once all pins are imported into the schematic frame in the root schematic it will be easier to add labels to your root schematic. You must ensure that the labels are connected either by nets or labels to the parts on the root schematic diagrams.

Full Size: figure 2

The hierarchical sheets are now connected

Navigating the hierarchy

You can navigate into hierarchical sheets by right-clicking and choosing "Enter Sheet". To navigate back up, right-click in the sheet and choose "Leave Sheet".

To navigate elsewhere in the hierarchy, you can select "Hierarchy" from the View menu (there is also a button for this function on the upper toolbar.)

Copying/Moving blocks between sheets

To copy a block of components from one sheet to another, select the block (left-drag) then right-click and choose "Save Block" (or type the Ctrl-C shortcut.)

If you're moving instead of copying then you can then right-click again and choose "Delete Block" to delete the block from the source sheet.

Then navigate to the sheet you want the block to appear on and click the Paste icon (Pasteboard) on the upper toolbar.