Overlapping Net Point hell

Upverter Support Schematic Editor
#1

I am in the process of building my first project with more than a few components. One hour of using the Schematic Editor consists of five minutes designing the actual circuit and 55 minutes fixing problems introduced by the Schematic Editor.

There are a number of problems but the worst is the fact that most times when I connect more than two things together I get a red dot and a constraint violation saying “Overlapping Net Point.” The only way I have found to fix this is to delete all of the net links anywhere near it and try again. If the dot is sitting directly on a component pin then it is hit and miss whether the dot is deleted or the component.

I have just created one simple trace which resulted in eight distinctive Overlapping Net Point errors. For the last hour I have actually made negative progress. I have a pretty good monitor and mouse and do not have the shakes - yet.

It was reported as a bug over three years ago but there was no response to that post.

Is there any solution to this problem?

Thanks in advance,

Rob

1 Like
#2

I know your pain. I don’t have an answer, but here are a few things that have helped me. You might have figured them all out by now, but if not hopefully it helps you, or other people who read this.

First, if there are a lot of connections, try using a bus or a flag. Fewer net connections means lower chance of failure.

Next, plan try planning ahead on your nets. Run far out of the way so you don’t have to end up moving a net several times.

Third, when you select every part of the net you want to move at the same time, go ahead and try to move it. If it fails and you get the red dots, then Ctrl-Z to undo and try again.

Another thing I’ve noticed lately when running into this is that sometimes if I click on the last part of the net with the red dot, it will recalculate or something and go away. :man_shrugging: Doesn’t always work, but it’s something. Usually Ctrl-Z and retry is what I end up doing. You’re right, though, this is frustrating and it would be nice if they could solve this problem.

-Paul

#3

I have the same pain and it is frustrating. I tried double clicking on the red dot and it seems to help sometimes.

#4

I selected all of the nets w/o selecting any of my components and gave the selection an explicit name and the red dot disappeared. (I did this while it was still only yellow from the naming complaint)

More accurately, the red dot doesn’t disappear as much as never show up in the first place.

Hope this helps,

-bC

#5

thanks for the tip @bartCharon

#6

On the Upverter blog I see some pretty impressive projects. I wonder if their PCB layouts are covered in red dots like my first attempt. Is there some “best practice” which can overcome this?

I’m admittedly a beginner at circuit design, but after a couple of hours just deleting and recreating the same few traces and moving components a millimeter left or right, I don’t feel any closer to being able to use this tool.