Nets merge without warning

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Tomg
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Posts: 2028
Joined: 20 Jun 2015, 07:39

Nets merge without warning

#1 Post by Tomg » 16 Feb 2017, 02:18

The DipTrace Schematic Editor allows two Nets to be merged without displaying a warning. In my opinion, this is a serious flaw. A warning needs to be displayed about any impending Net mergers, similar to how the PCB Editor handles the same situation.
Tom

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3897
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Nets merge without warning

#2 Post by Alex » 17 Feb 2017, 03:06

I am not sure this is good idea. Schematic is intended to create, edit, merge, destroy nets. Users would have so many warnings every time they merge nets. That would be inconvenient.

Fenichel
Posts: 48
Joined: 10 Mar 2012, 10:23

Re: Nets merge without warning

#3 Post by Fenichel » 17 Feb 2017, 07:02

For users like me -- I don't know what fraction of the user community that is -- Diptrace's current behavior is almost backward.

On the schematic, logical connection is important, and physical connections are implicit. Every time a I place a GND component, I generate another piece of the GND net. They don't look connected, but of course I know they are. If I accidentally drag-and-drop a component so that it appears to be sitting on top of another, there's no harm done -- I can just move it away. But if I accidentally connect two nets, there's usually no nice way to recover, and I usually end up redrawing the whole schematic. I'd like to be warned. Possibly there could be a modal setting, so that these warnings were provided or not.

This issue might usefully be coupled to one that was brought up a while ago, possibly by Tomg. If Schematic Editor always suggested meaningful names for Nets (say, derived from the name of the first pin on the net), then that would be a good thing by itself. And when nets are being connected, the semi-helpful hypothetical warning
Do you really want to connect Net23 to Net56?
could instead appear as, say
Do you really want to connect Reset to Trigger?
To me, the PCB Editor usually stands in the same relation to the Schematic Editor as a linker is to a compiler. I arrange the physical connections, and if I were to connect two nets, it would be an error. I'm glad to get the warning.

Occasionally, I design a simple PCB using only the PCB Editor. Then, the physical traces are in some sense all there is; the nets are almost an epiphenomenon. I don't know what meaningful warnings could be given.

Techno Tronix
Posts: 188
Joined: 09 Jan 2015, 19:00
Location: Anaheim, CA 92806
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Re: Nets merge without warning

#4 Post by Techno Tronix » 20 Feb 2017, 01:33

@Alex, Can you add a feature like a user can select that they want the warning or not. For some user it is inconvenient but for some user, it may really helpful.

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