About misalignment of circular create array function

I placed L1 horizontally. Then used the create array function with circular.
After the placing, There was a misalignment. The L1 is moved lower than original position. Look at the picture.

before:

after:

What happened?

The create array’s option was:

Application: KiCad PCB Editor x64 on x64

Version: 9.0.4, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.8
FreeType 2.13.3
HarfBuzz 10.2.0
FontConfig 2.15.0
libcurl/8.13.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1

Platform: Windows 11 (build 26100), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
OpenGL: Intel, Intel(R) UHD Graphics 770, 4.6.0 - Build 31.0.101.5592

Build Info:
Date: Aug 18 2025 00:41:45
wxWidgets: 3.2.8 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.88.0
OCC: 7.9.1
Curl: 8.13.0-DEV
ngspice: 44
Compiler: Visual C++ 1942 without C++ ABI
KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale:
Lang: en_GB
Enc: UTF-8
Num: 1,234.5
Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)

This is already fixed in 9.0.5: PCB Editor: Create Array reference designator shifted (#20935) · Issues · KiCad / KiCad Source Code / kicad · GitLab

In the meantime, as this causes a “barrel shift” effect, you can use “Move Exactly” to rotate the whole thing around the centre by one degree.

And in answer to the obvious next question: “can you add a way to add a fixed angle to all items in the array?”, an offset parameter for the angle is already present in nightly/v10.

1 Like

I have fixed this issue using “Move Exactly” command. Thank you.

I found the new mis alignment after “Move Exactly”.
A little difference is.

before:
image

after( moved 1 degree ):
image

Probably you are using the “rotate around selection centre” and because those dimensions are on the outside edge, the selection center is somehow not dead centre.

It’s a bit fiddly for now, but you can move the local origin to the centre for this purpose and then rotate using that in the dropdown.

If you have a little offset like this but the angle is right, you can then use Position Relative or Position Relative Interactively to set the offset correctly.

(in the menu that was cut off, I selected Positioning Tools → Position Interactively)

Could this be the problem > Strange-part-move-grid-snap-behavior?

Do you have the same problem if you place a single footprint somewhere on the PCB?