Allow a refdes to be set to the same name as a netname, power supply name or sheet connector.

[dbur]

Since netnames, power supply names and sheet connector names are not actually parts there is no conflict for naming a refdes the same as one of these.  I believe this used to be OK in some previous version of MS.

This would be very useful for test point parts.

Does anyone even read these ideas?

[jcham]

Hi dbur, 

We definitely read all of the Idea Exchange posts, and factor them into our planning. I very much appreciate the feedback you share here. 

My preference is to see genuine discussion emerge between customers before someone from NI weighs in, which is why threads often go without a response from me. 

This idea sounds interesting to me, I can see why you'd want your test points and nets to share names. 

I don't believe Multisim ever allowed this in the past, we throw all of that into the netlist, and SPICE gets angry when there are naming conflicts. This is something we could certainly consider though, either in desktop CDS or Multisim Live, if it's something that will bring significant value to our customers.

Thanks again for the input!

Cheers,

Jeff Chamberlin

Multisim & Ultiboard Product Support Engineer 

[dbur]

Thanks for confirming you do look at these.  My confidence has been low since I was told certain defects I had reported would be fixed in the next release and they have not been.  That was 2-3 releases ago and the defects are still there. (https://forums.ni.com/t5/Multisim-and-Ultiboard-Idea/Fix-the-group-text-attributes-defect-in-UB/idi-...)

I may have misspoke on the netname issue here.  It's not the netname/refdes naming that is a problem, but the refdes cannot be set to the same name as a sheet connector.

BTW MS 11 allowed refdes name to be set the same as sheet connector names as I have just proven to myself.  Some version after that stopped allowing it.   Also in MS14 if you rename the sheetconnector to something else, then name the testpoint refdes, and then rename the sheetconnector and netname to the same name as the refdes that works as well and seems to cause no problems with netlist export to UB or to SPICE simulations.  It's only if you try to name the redes the same as the sheetconnector name after already naming the sheetconnector that MS14 disallows it.  So that's the workaround, but would be nice to not have to deal with that since often many testpoints are added after the nets are connected and sheetconnectors already named.

Also SPICE netlist has no use for a test point part, sheet connector or other part that has no simulation model so that should not be a reason to disallow it.

I can't post the ms11 file here apparently but you can easily try this with a simple circuit like this:

Thanks.