Don't open Eeschema window for Update PCB from Schematic or DRC/Check Footprints

[Seth Hillbrand]

I've opened a KiCad project and loaded pcbnew. Eeschema is not open. I run a DRC check on the board and eeschema loads and displays the screen before the DRC check runs.

It's a minor annoyance but doesn't need to happen.

Application: KiCad
Version: (5.1.0-573-ga670b360e-dirty), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.64.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1b zlib/1.2.11 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.36.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.19.0-4-amd64 x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 3.24
    Boost: 1.67.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.64.0
    Compiler: GCC 8.3.0 with C++ ABI 1013

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

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

You probably have Check Footprints on. It does some tests to see if the footprints on the board match the symbols in the schematic.

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

@Jeff-

Yes, Test footprints against schematic is checked.

Why do we need to open the schematic window? It seems like we should be able to get the schematic without a window.

If the window is required, can we close it after getting the data? Or at least, put it behind the DRC window that is running the check?

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

@Seth,

Dunno. It uses the same code as we do for Update PCB from Schematic, but I've never looked into whether or not bringing up the window is required to get the netlist.

[Jon Evans (craftyjon)]

Currently it's required. Hopefully by the end of the V6 cycle we will have enough separation of concerns to make it no longer required :)

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/2422