Apply changes to many items, aka redo

[PeterS]

I need to make changes to many elements, i.e. I need to change the outer diameter and the drill size of a lot of vias. Is there something like a redo reapply command instead of having to edit each via?

[Rene_Poschl]

You can select multiple vias at the same time and change their properties. See Tutorial: Introduction to PCB design with KiCad version 5.1 (Getting Started) section “Updating the pcb with the new limits”

[PeterS]

It says CTRL+SHFT+LEFT MOUSE to select several items, but that does not work on macOS. I tried various combinations on macOS it seems to be only SHFT (I would have expected CMD). Thanks.

[Rene_Poschl]

@PeterS

It says CTRL+SHFT+LEFT MOUSE

Where? I do not find this section in the tutorial. (at least not in the section i linked. There i only show the box select option. I don’t even mention that one could use shift or control click to make a selection.)

[jos]

@Rene_Poschl

Where?

In section ‘Assign Footprints’ a bit down end of sixth paragraph it reads:

You can assign the same footprint to multiple symbols by selecting them at the same time (crtl or shift plus left click to add to the selection)

[paulvdh]

First make a decent setup of your net classes in:
File / Board Setup … / Design Rulse / Net Classes

Then drag a big selection box around your tracks:

Press [E] to edit properties, and set the checkbox with [ ] Use net class sizes at the bottom of the window.

Now I have big via’s:

[SembazuruCDE]

Using netclasses is probably the best way under normal circumstances. But if you want to change the via sizes in one area then you can region select and filter only vias. For example (warning, lots of pictures…)

Let’s say that I want to only change the vias around a certain chip regardless of the nets involved, yet not touch vias elsewhere on those same nets. I can region select the part of the board that I want like thus:

And the result is thus:

Note all the other things that are selected. Now right-click on any selected item and choose to filter the selection from the menu, thus:

And you get the selection filter requester with all the check boxes checked like thus:

Now, unselect everything except for vias like thus:

Then click ok and now the only thing selected are the vias that were in the selection box, like thus:

Now, just like before, press the “E” key to get the via properties. Here I changed the via diameter to 50mils (and got tired of using the word “thus”):

And here is the result:

Et voila! Vias in a selected area of the board are edited.

[PeterS]

Thanks a lot, there are even multiple options. Even so I read a book all this was not mentioned. Perhaps wrong book? Of course I need to define first usefull classes and settings, but this is my first KiCAD project, I always worked with Eagle, but recently decided to switch to KiCAD so with all the new things I tend to forget about best practices in some cases.

[John_Pateman]

There have been massive changes to KiCad over the last couple of years. Like many open source projects, the KiCad documentation often lags the program development. Also, there are a huge number of tutorials still available in various forms which use old versions of KiCad (but frequently don’t actually mention the version being used).

If you are just moving over from Eagle, there are some good and up to date resources mentioned here
Learning Kicad - unofficial learning resources

that would be worth reading or watching. I would advise against looking at anything prior to version 5.1 as so much has changed.