2.2. Forward and backward annotation

2.2. Forward and backward annotation

Once an electronic schematic has been fully drawn, the next step is to transfer it to a PCB following the KiCad work-flow. Once the board layout process has been partially or completely done, additional components or nets might need to be added, parts moved around and much more. This can be done in two ways: Backward Annotation and Forward Annotation.

Backward Annotation is the process of sending a PCB layout change back to its corresponding schematic. Some do not consider this particular feature especially useful.

Forward Annotation is the process of sending schematic changes to a corresponding PCB layout. This is a fundamental feature because you do not really want to re-do the layout of the whole PCB every time you make a modification to your schematic. Forward Annotation is discussed in the section titled Forward Annotation.