Re: gEDA-user: Stupid newbie question

[Bill Wilson <billw@wt.net>]

On Fri, 21 May 2004 12:02:43 -0400
Chad Robinson <crj@lucubration.com> wrote:

> OK, I feel like an idiot, but gschem definitely doesn't have the "feel" of the 
> tools I'm used to. I'm having problems connecting nets to pins. No matter what 
> I do I always seem to get the red "unconnected" box. If I zoom WAY in (so even 
> a simple capacitor fills almost the entire screen) and drag the connection 
> handle of a net into the VERY middle of another net, I do get a net-to-net 
> connection (red circle). But I can't get it at all with component pins.
> 
> I tried playing with net rubberbands, various snap options, etc. I've tried 
> starting nets with the keyboard, mouse positioned on a pin, and with the 
> add-net tool and left-clicking where to start. On the off chance the symbol 
> had a problem I tried a variety of symbols. Nothing is getting me where I need 
> to be.
> 
> What am I doing wrong? And is there a snap-to-pin option? This would be a real 
> help.

There's a little red dot at the end of pins and you have to click on that
dot to make the connection.  It can be confusing, but clicking on the middle
of a pin doesn't do it.  Also note that if you ever add pins while editing
a symbol, the pin end the dot is on depends on which point you select first
to draw the pin.  So you have to be careful that your pin drawing gets all
those dots on the pin end away from the symbol body.

I think this is a potential confusion for many first time gschem users
and is why I made a point of it in the tutorial page:

   http://web.wt.net/~billw/gsch2pcb/gschem-warmup.html

Bill