Is cyclepicking possible in the PCB editor? The clarifyer is okay but not for quick single picking, especially when you want to tidy up the layout and do lots of minor movements (quick picking of items).
No, not as you demonstrate.
The Kicad method is to hold Left Mouse Button down until list appears, then, while still holding the LMB down, use the number keys to select the required item. Item to be edited is then highlighted.
Okay thanks, yeah I discovered long LMB but itâs not the same. I found a similar thread but it was old and hoped for an update.
KiCad also has PCB Editor / tools / Cleanup Tracks and Vias which can help quite a lot with cleanup, but sometimes also cleans up a bit too much. So save your project before you do this, and then you can either undo, or if that does not work, revert to the saved version.
You can also work with the filters in the lower right corner. If items are turned off, selection is quicker.
Iâm with Paul on the âCleanupâ, but the LMB plus the number key is awfully close to your Cycle.
I often do some final moving of the tracks to align better or give space to vias for better GND stitching. Also sometimes I do âlousyâ routing and later align tracks nicely. So itâs basically (for me) to quick select and move tracks.
Will try cleanup. I tried to use the clarifier (itâs also similar to Altium) but cycle clicking is way faster (and wonât break the current flow). In Altium cycle-clicking is disabled by default too as I believe but implemented because P-CAD users asking for it (long ago).
I donât understand why you want to select at place where tracks are connected together and not just drag starting in the middle of segment where you more often donât have many tracks (at currently selected layer).
Just to move that connection point. For example, create a V shape out of a T or when you want to corner mitering where the 45deg. lines are overlapping. Or just select a small line which is âburiedâ within other lines. The same goes for: why would you use the clarify popup when you can do cycle pickingâŚ
Point at connecting point and press G.
Even using Google translator I donât understand what you exactly mean.
I donât remember using it ever.
I was designing lot small PCBs using KiCad V5. Since then I rarely do only some new releases.
I donât know if âclarify popupâ existed in V5.
Small, clarification (ha): if you click exactly on the junction, you will get the disambiguation menu immediately because all the options seems equally likely to KiCad:
Normally thereâs a heuristic at play to figure out what you most likely mean, but, as in this case, thereâs no winning candidate and the menu gets shown at once. Long click disables that heuristic and shows everything.
For cleaning up tracks, another method is to simply draw a new track in the location you want it. If PCB Editor / Route / Interactive Router Settings / General Options / Remove redundant tracks is on, then this automatically removes the old tracks.
Or you press d to drag a track. No need to select anything, just hover and d. There are so many options, that itâs hard to remember what works best in different situations.
Got it but that is not what I am looking for. The disambiguation popup gets in the way of quickly selecting things when youâre used to cycle-picking.
This problem, you mention as an example, does not exist if the Interactive Router is set as @paulvdh mentions above.
Point at connecting point and press G.
That didnât work for me, the popup comes up and that is just what is âin the wayâ of quick picking.
I donât know if âclarify popupâ existed in V5.
I guess itâs called disambiguation popup (the popup which comes up when selecting a connection point)
Even using Google translator I donât understand what you exactly mean.
Changing edge / angles, see both videos:
This problem, you mention as an example, does not exist if the Interactive Router is set as @paulvdh mentions above.
Iâm not talking about a redundant track, just a track you cannot select because there are other nearby tracks. For example, I want to select this track (for whatever reason, eg change size) without the additional popup, just quickly using cycle-picking, is that possible?
Maybe to summarize the folks above: no, KiCad doesnât have cycle picking as a concept. If this is something you want to see in some future version, consider making a feature request on Gitlab (KiCad > Help > Report a bug) and including the link here for others to find.
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No, because KiCad doesnât have such a feature. Not everything in KiCad works like Altium. If you want to propose such a feature, you can. At the earliest, it would be available in v10 (or nightlies if you like life on the edge). At latestâŚindefinite.
In KiCad today, you have choices if you must select that edge: disambiguation menu, or drag-select (specifically, a left-to-right âenclosingâ selection, as opposed to the right-to-left âtouchingâ selection). The disambiguation menu matches highlight to mouseover, so you can quickly figure out the one you want. Neither are very slow, but obviously both may feel odd to a long-term Altium user:
My personal default seems to be a mouse click and swipe to select it.
Even for quite extremely short chamfers cases like your first example, you can also get an unambiguous one-click selection by aiming for these two points. Which I admit is fiddly, but also how often do you really have such chamfers, anyway?
Iâm not saying wanting âcycle pickingâ is wrong, itâs just (evidently, from this thread) a different idiom to what many KiCad users have pre-loaded in the their muscle memory. Itâs very possible itâs a useful feature that addresses a shortcoming in the existing UX and would be a popular suggestion.
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Thanks a lot. I like the drag select which is quite fast as well.
I know, with my âAltium movesâ, I might not make friends here but at least I try to shed a light on things that might be just different regardless if itâs better, equal or worse.
That said, I am VERY happy with KiCad. There are features (like swapping components CMD + S) which already saved a lot of my time. KiCad feels quick and smooth as wel.
This is a typical case of: Itâs only after experiencing it that you understand what you were missing.
PS: not expecting any feature requests to be implemented quickly or even ever.
Glad youâre having fun!
Like I said, KiCad is open to ideas that make it better, but weâre very much not aiming to be a free Altium (or any other EDA) clone, itâs very much its own thing. So, feature requests need to be thought through first in terms of how they integrate with and improve the KiCad-native workflow. Which is also not to say smoothing the on-ramp for users of other software is not part of it.
FYI, it probably will never be implemented if you donât make a Gitlab issue for it. The forum is a good place to ask if youâre holding it right, but if you establish that youâd actually like a new feature, Gitlab is the only place that is tracked. Do try to look for existing issues, but I think in this case there isnât one - if there is, itâs not obvious.
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