Deleting an entire track in pcbnew [SOLVED]

Hi guys,

sorry if that is a RTFM question and I did not investigate enough. I’m on 5.99.0-806-g7ac83ac64.
Is the possibility to delete whole nets (not only segments) gone forever?

Thx

You have to change the hotkey to do it, but be warned it now deletes much more than you would expect based on say 5.0.5,

Is it the “Delete full track” hotkey? If so: negative. Is set to DEL here and still only deletes a segment.

I first read the title as if you wanted to remove a net from the netlist in Pcbnew. Which is apparently not what you want.

It may be that not much has changed, but you’re simply not aware of the different ways stuff can be deleted / removed. I can understand you did not RTFM for the changes in a futuristic KiCad version as it’s probably not in the manual anyway, but how do you want to delete your tracks? is it by hovering over a track and pressing hotkeys such as [Del] or i ? Or some function from the main menu or context menu?

Ok, the title should have read “track” instead of “net”.

I select a track segment either by clicking on it, or by hovering over it.
In the olden days (5.1), DEL then deleted ALL tracks/vias of a net in pcbnew. BACKSPACE deleted the selected track segment (or the track segment I hovered over). Now DEL removes a track segment (although DEL is configured in the hotkey preferences to delete the full track) and I find nothing to delete all tracks/vias in a net as backspace did previously.

Or, to put it the other way round: how do I delete an entire track with all vias in one go?

See https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/3710.

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Thanks a lot. THAT’s the answer.

I just learned a new hotkey :slight_smile: [Backspace] for deleting a single track segment.

In my KiCad V5.1.5 the [Del] key also deletes selections. Can you still hover over a track and then press i or u to make a selection and then delete it?

Here “i” has no effect. Same as DEL alone.
“u” and then Del does the trick. “u” selects the entire track and then DEL deletes it dutyfully.
Still works. Now I learned something new. I did not know this all the time. Shame on me :slight_smile: .

Btw: I cannot conceive of what “u” should abbreviate… Whule, ull track, enture track :joy:?

“u” get used to it? :wink:

Overall the default shortcut keys have pretty decent key assignments for memorability. One annoying thing about the hotkeys is that you need w to draw a wire in Eeschema, and x to draw a track in Pcbnew.

Hermit’s right. Get Used to it.

Also, selection for u and i is very distinct. u selects segments untill the nearest T or pad, while i selects more copper, it also selects over T-joints of a track. I like u and i being next to each other on the keyboard.

An easy way to delete some specific complicated T-joint mess is to first hover and set it free with [Backspace] and then use i to select and then [Del] -ete it.
Edit: This is in the stable KiCad V5.1.5, I have not used nightlies for over a year.

Just kidding…
But seriously: “i” and [Backspace] do nothing in my current (most recent) nightly.
“u” selects more copper, across T-joints an all.
Am I missing something? Or did something change since 5.1?
But then, that’s maybe not worth the time. I’ll get U-sed to it.
I’m off. Thanks for all your replies.
Take care.

True, but, you can reassign them. I have changed a lot of hotkeys to be more in tune with what seems obvious to me/what I used on old CAD systems.

I really like the hotkey system on kicad it’s so much better than Altium’s. I really like that pressing a hotkey cancels the current mode and takes you straight to the new one. I also like that you can just use single keys and not have to use ALT-something or CTL-something.

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