Implement spreadsheet view of schematic connections

[Artsiom Shchatsko]

When checking schematic it's quite useful to view it as a spreadsheet with net names in the left column, component references and pins (e.g. "U100-1") in the top row and a mark in other cells if a given component pin is connected to a given net.

Some use cases:
- Check if a net has no conflicting pull-up, pull-down resistors (including internal ones)
- Check if all decoupling capacitors in a group are connected to the same voltage rail
- For components with multiple power supplies (FPGA, SoC etc) check if power pins are connected to the correct voltage rails

Such spreadsheet can reside in a separate dockable window and is read-only (but with the ability to copy from it). It would be great to be able to cross-probe between spreadsheet view and graphical view of the schematic.

[Artsiom Shchatsko (cioma)]

In order to minimize number of columns the implementation could be as in Mentor xDX Designer:

- Left column: net names
- Top row: component references (and symbol name)
- Other cells: a list of pin names (and pin numbers) of a given component to which a given net is connected.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I believe there is already a bug report for this in the bug tracker.
Please look and see if you can find it and mark this one as a duplicate
accordingly.

On 5/10/2016 1:54 PM, Artsiom Shchatsko wrote:
> In order to minimize number of columns the implementation could be as in
> Mentor xDX Designer:
>
> - Left column: net names
> - Top row: component references (and symbol name)
> - Other cells: a list of pin names (and pin numbers) of a given component to which a given net is connected.
>
>
> ** Attachment added: "Mentor xDX Designer Interconnect editor"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1580202/+attachment/4660026/+files/NewEngineer_Screen3.png
>

[Artsiom Shchatsko (cioma)]

Well, I did a search before filing this wishlist bug and it didn't return anything similar.

[Berk Akinci (berka)]

I like the other views or schematic entry methods too.
I didn't find another bug for this either.
It's possible Wayne remembers this post where I pointed to Cadence ASA near bottom of:
https://forum.kicad.info/t/multiple-sheets-at-same-hierarchy-level/2632/3?u=berkakinci
The commercial software (when I tried it some years ago) was still in its infancy, so it's understandably not very well-known. Still, this (HDL+spreadheet) is a very-much-needed evolution of design capture as pin counts and complexity increase.

[Berk Akinci (berka)]

Update: it appears Cadence now calls the features "multi-style option" under the "Design Authoring" product.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2024