Learning KI-CAD for school

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1

Hi there I am Sevarin and I am taking a new course in Computer Engineering. We are using KI-CAD as our auto cad program and our instructor says that there is a way to increase the size of the symbols in this program. Although, all of us have looked through the pages and have not found one way to increase or change the size of the symbols. (Say for example the symbol for Resistor ( R )) The only way we have figured out how to change the sizes is the paper size to user custom and going as small as 200x200 paper size just so it shows up larger.

Does anyone know if there is a way to make the symbols larger or do you have to import new symbols that are drawn larger in a paint program?

I look forward to hearing your comments.

Sevarin

2

This might be a good question for the KiCad forum. From my experience though, the only way to up the size is to make new symbols though. What is the purpose of larger symbols? Just making them easier to read?

3

Hi Chris, mainly the purpose is to make them easier to read and because our instructor is saying that it can be done. However, I am noticing the only way to actually phisiaclly make the symbols bigger is correct that you do have to make them your selves but that is a bunch of symbols to change. And i may show our instructor this that i found from the Ki-Cad fourms… :

How do I resize components?

Schematic

Tobia May '15

Hello

I’m a total Kicad newbie and I’ve stumbled into my first roadblock. The generic Triac component seems to be disproportionately large, but I cannot find any resize tool in the schematic window.

Take a look: kicad triac.png - Google Drive 588

I have placed a transistor below it as a size comparison. If you can see a tiny cyan speck above the triac symbol to the left, that is supposed to be the designator! So there’s clearly something wrong with this component’s sizing.

What should I do?

devbisme

May '15

Hi, Tobia.

In your schematic, right-click on the designator for your triac and select ‘Edit Reference’ from the popup menu. Then adjust the value in the size field of the popup window until the designator is big enough.

dwight_m

May '15

So I looked at his example image and the Triac looks overly large compared to the other components.

It appears that who ever drew the Triac used a large grid size.

Is it not possible to increase/decrease the size of a given schematic element (other than adjusting the text size of a given label)?

If Tobia makes the label bigger to match the Triac then the Triac will still look out of proportion to the other schematic elements.

Is that an issue where different people (or even the same person at different times) uses different base grid sizes when drawing schematic elements that will later be shared and mixed with other components drawn in a different grid size??

It would be nice if one could shrink/enlarge a schematic element as needed, OR if kicad would use a fixed grid size when creating schematic elements (but I don’t think that would work as the user could just draw a resistor very large or very small) I think we really need the ability to scale a given schematic element up or down as needed.

I don’t think this is as much of an issue when dealing with footprints as a footprint is tied to the physical size of the component it fits. dwight

Andy_P

May '15

“Is it not possible to increase/decrease the size of a given schematic element (other than adjusting the text size of a given label)?”

No, it’s not, and unfortunately the solution is to redraw the symbol.

One issue you will run into if you had resizeable symbols is the location of the pins. Those would change with the symbol size and end up off-grid.

How do I resize components? - Schematic - KiCad.info Forums

4

Yeah, the “easier to read” thing is all relative. You might want to partition the components into a smaller area, as you first indicated. That would at least print them on a page larger.

Alternately, take a screenshot of the section of the circuit you want enlarged.

Really, I see this as a non-issue for the program. It’s possible I (and perhaps you) have a misunderstanding of what the instructor actually wants. If there’s actually a feature request, I normally tell people to head over to the KiCad forum to discuss and/or submit a bug report on the Launchpad page.