Protel DXP 2004 error messages

adding items to hidden net

Salute all,

I'm new to PCB design, so please bear with me. I'm currently using DXP 2004 to design my PCB, and I start out my project with Schematic capture with multiple sheets. So far, it seems to be OK, however when I try to compile the project I get these error messages and I don't know how to fix the problem. Here they are:

1-Adding items to hidden net GND. (This message is from sheet 1,2,3,4)
2-Adding items to hidden net VCC. (This message is from sheet 1,2,3,4)
3-Adding hidden net. (This error message is from sheet 2,3)

In my design the power supply circuit is on sheet 5 and it's also the top sheet.
Could you please spend some time helping identify the causes of my problem. Any inputs would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, and have a great day.

Best Regards,
T.L

adding items to hidden vcc

Those are not error messages - they are warnings that you have hidden pins on your schematic symbols, and that the compiler is connecting those pins to the power supplies indicated in the message. The power supply connections are the same ones you specified when you made the decision to hide the pins on the schematic. Those connections are part of the dialog where you told DXP to hide the pin.

As a general practice, it's not a good idea to hide pins on schematic symbols. The only time you should do it is when you have a particularly complex circuit and hidden pins would make it easier to read the schematic.

protel dxp designer 2004

Hello House_Cat,

Thank you very much for your prompt reply. I think you've shed me some light on this problem.
Yes, you're right, in my design I have a lot of quad Op-Amp ICs, and some logic gates IC and I only enable power pins for one part of each IC. For instance, the IC has 4 Op-Amps A, B, C, D in each package and I only enable power pins for part A and hide power pins in others using Edit pins widow. What I did was unchecked these pins. As you pointed out, is this a bad practice? Should I enable all power pins of all components in my design? Because I remember one time, when I enable all power pins of all parts compiler also give me error messages too. For now, I don't have access to my work, thus I can't test or verify this out. I will try as you suggested tomorrow and post back the result. Once again, thank you very much for your input.

Best Regards,
T.L

adding items to hidden net vcc

Hello House_Cat,

Following your guidance I was be able to solve some of the error/warning messages. As you said, I enabled power pins and add VCC/GND to them the compiler error/warning messages disappear on sheet 2,3,4,5. It's very interesting that I did the same on sheet 1 but still there are 2 error/warning messages, and they are the same as my previous post:

1-Adding items to hidden net GND
2-Adding items to hidden net VCC

And if I double click on the first one from Compiler Errors window it'll high light all the connections that connected to GND net. The same scenario for the second one. This puzzles me, and I don't have any idea why it does so. Do you have any idea on this? Please help, thanks a lots for your help. Have a great one.

Best Regards,
T.L

dxp hidden vcc pins logic

Without seeing your schematic, it would be impossible to guess where the hidden pins might be.

Hello House_Cat,

I found my problem, it was one of the logic gates part I missed out and didn't enable power pins. After enabled it, everything started falling into place. Great help sir. Once again thank you very much for your help. It's a relief for me now because I've been banging my head for a while before posting my question here, and finally you've showed me the way out. Your help is truely appreciated sir. Have a great one.

Best Regards,
T.L