Cannot select part name/ref in PCB editor

[Charles5]

I hereby certify that I am not simply asking someone else to design a footprint for me.

This is an auto-generated message that is in place on the “footprints” section of the KiCad.info forum. If I remove it and ask for a footprint to be designed anyway, I understand that I will be subject to forum members telling me to go design my own footprint or referring me to a 3rd party footprint site.

Hi all,

I have created some custom footprints that seems to work ok. However, when imported in a PCB design, their name or ref (for instance “R2” for a resistor) cannot be selected alone. If I click on this name/ref, the full part footprint is selected, but never just the name/ref. As a result, I cannot move the name/ref itself to a suitable position.

This only occurs for custom footprints, not for footprints imported from standard KiCad libraries. I have extensively compared a standard footprint vs one of my custom ones in the footprint editor, but I cannot find any difference.

What am I missing? Thanks

[BlackCoffee]

If you put the Text inside the footprint’s boundary, the entire Footprint gets selected and you should get a Pop-up menu to select from. Otherwise, should be able to select individually…

Without posting your Footprint, it’s difficult to Help you and see what’s happening… Also, post your Kicad version and OP system…

[Charles5]

You were spot on! I have updated the footprints for the text to be outside and I can now select it individually.

However, back when the text was inside the footprint, I never had any popup showing when clicking it. Maybe a setting somewhere I missed.

[paulvdh]

@Charles5

I never had any popup showing when clicking it. Maybe a setting somewhere I missed.

You have to do a “long click”. That is: keep the mouse button depressed for about a second before the menu pops up.