eeschema: "highlight wires and pins of a net" on /<NO NET> highlights different nets

[Dino Ghilardi]

On Master branch,
 When different nets have not been named yet (as when a schematic has not been annotated and the nets have not been named), using the highlight tool can give wrong result: different nets have the same name (/<NO NET>) and they are highlighted even if they are not connected.

Since "no information" is better than "wrong information", a simple solution could be to not highlight the wires if the net name is "/<NO NET>" (and issue a warning).

To reproduce:
1) Open a generic schematic (without net labels)
2) Clear annotation
3) Highlight a net: all nets get highlighted since all net names are "/<NO NET>"

In stable version 5.1.4 there is not this behaviour: it seems the nets are always named (Something like Net-(R?1753720092-Pad2)) even if the schematic has not been annotated, so there is no risk to see different un-connected nets highlighted at the same time..

Cheers,
Dino.

-------------------------
Application: Eeschema
Version: (5.99.0-139-gbb596ebda-dirty), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.2
    libcurl/7.52.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2s zlib/1.2.8 libidn2/0.16 libpsl/0.17.0 (+libidn2/0.16) libssh2/1.7.0 nghttp2/1.18.1 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.2 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 2.24
    Boost: 1.69.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
    Curl: 7.52.1
    Compiler: GCC 6.3.0 with C++ ABI 1010

Build settings:
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

@Jon, it looks like this is due to changes in the new netlist code. The old method of using the symbol time stamp appended to the reference seems like a perfectly reasonable solution. Is there a specific reason why you dropped this or was it just an oversight on your part?

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

I cannot reproduce that in Kicad 5.99.0-149
Nets with no label are correctly labeled.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

@JP, did you clear all of the annotation? This only applies to wires with no label(s) between pins of symbols that are not annotated.

[Dino Ghilardi (dino-ghilardi)]

Yes, they are correctly labeled, but with the same label "</NO NET>", so when you highlight one of them, all are highlighted.
Please see the attached image with the example: bottom and top nets are different but are both highlighted.
This issue disappears after annotating the schematic, since then the nets become labeled with a different string.

[Dino Ghilardi (dino-ghilardi)]

Also attached a simple schematic. To see the issue open the schematic, use the "Highlight wires and pin of a net" selecting one of the nets.

Cheers,
Dino.

Screenshot got from version 130d5.

Application: Eeschema
Version: (5.99.0-149-g130d52dd8-dirty), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.2
    libcurl/7.52.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2s zlib/1.2.8 libidn2/0.16 libpsl/0.17.0 (+libidn2/0.16) libssh2/1.7.0 nghttp2/1.18.1 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.9.0-8-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.2 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 2.24
    Boost: 1.69.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
    Curl: 7.52.1
    Compiler: GCC 6.3.0 with C++ ABI 1010

Build settings:
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

OK: I forgot to clear the annotation I just made...
Yes I confirm this issue.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/1933