connectors electrical type of pin should be configurable in schematic

[Carolus]

Application: kicad
Version: no-vcs-found-a240f88~61~ubuntu16.04.1, release build
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Ubuntu 16.04 AMD A10-7850K APU with Radeon(TM) R7 Graphics × 4

Description: electrical pin types of IC's are normally fixed. Connectors are different. So in eeschema in the component properties dialog of connector pins the electrical type should be changeable. Adding the field "Electrical type" did not help me.
Example: 2 connector pins conn 01x01 are provided for connecting 12VAC. After a bridge rectifier with buffer capacitor is a voltage regulator. ERC gives "no driving point" error at the input of the regulator. Providing the AC pin connecting wires with a power input AC and the wire at input of regulator with power +12V is of no help.
Searching internet for 2 days did not give me any support. Am I the only user with this problem?

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

This cannot happen until the new schematic file format is written which will not happen until after the stable 5 release. Currently symbols are provided by links to the symbol in the library so in schematic symbol modifications would have to change the library symbol which would be applied to all symbols linked to that library symbol. I'm pretty sure this is not the behavior that users would expect.

[Carolus (h-c-croon)]

Thank you very much for your response and the time you spend in the
KICAD project!

In my opinion configuring the electrical type of connector pins per pin
used in eeschematic is a natural demand. So the data structure should be
chosen in accordance with this demand. And also pins of IC's  and MCU's
that are configurable as input or output should be configureable in this
way.

Hopefully this will be accomplished in a future release.

If my English is not perfect, sorry. Its not my mother tongue.

Regards,

Harry Croon

Op 06-12-17 om 14:11 schreef Wayne Stambaugh:
> This cannot happen until the new schematic file format is written which
> will not happen until after the stable 5 release. Currently symbols are
> provided by links to the symbol in the library so in schematic symbol
> modifications would have to change the library symbol which would be
> applied to all symbols linked to that library symbol. I'm pretty sure
> this is not the behavior that users would expect.
>
> ** Changed in: kicad
> Status: New => Triaged
>

[Evan Shultz (evan-shultz)]

For a generic connector like you mentioned, we cannot know what signal is on each pin of the connector. All generic connectors use Passive type for all pins to be safe with regards to the ERC engine.

You can use the PWR_FLAG symbol to indicate a net that can source current but which does not have a Power Output pin on the net, which in your example is the regulator output. This will prevent errors with Power Input pins on the net which need a source.

You have a good point and the librarians try to make the best choices for all users, hence the PWR_FLAG and its use in relevant situations, but hopefully that can help you avoid ERC errors in the interim.