Fast grid switching in schematic?

Drawing schematic I found myself continuously switching grid betwean 50 (placeing, wiring) and 10 mils (reference and value positioning).
I suppose there is no such fast grid switching method like in PcbNew (Alt+1 and Alt+2).

Am I right or it is but I am blind ?

For the record, you can use Shift + Ctrl (on Windows) while (m)oving a ref or a value to disable the grid, so they can be positioned more precisely without snapping to the grid. I understand they won’t be aligned to any grid, but it may be good enough.

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So I just learned a new KiCad trick. Also works on Linux:

1). Hover over some item in Eeschema.
2). ‘m’ for move.m
3). Move the mouse cursor and your item shocks in grid steps.
4). Add [Ctrl] + [Shift] and the shocking behaviour dissapears. (Item moved in small steps)

Be carefull though. You should never ever put the components themself off grid because this makes it almost impossible to connect wires to pins. There is no snap yet and Eeschema depends on (nearly?) perfect alignment between the attachment points of pins and the endpoints of (usually green) wires.

(Just for fun I did a little test, placed a resistor off-grid with [Ctrl]+[Shift] and then connected some wires to it. It is possible, but no fun.)

Another (probably more productive) way is to do your editing in waves.
When you are designing your schematic diagram, do not pay attention to the locations of texts, and then once an hour or once a day, set your grid to small and do a cleanup sweep through your schematic to put all texts in readable positions, also cleanup locations of some of the schematic symbols and wiring.
The trick is to not give in to instant distraction by a single misplaced piece of text, and keep focussing on the working of your schematic.

This is difficult. Especially if you have CDO. *1).

*1). CDO is much like OCD, but with the letters sorted alfabetically, as they should be.

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I draw schematic generally very compact. Except one situation 20 years ago all schematics are at single sheet.
We decided few days ago that the next version of some PCB will be done using KiCad (first serious KiCad use). This schematic close to fully fills A4 so no place to loose. In original I had Univers Condensed used.
So I annotate and place the texts to see where I can have next wire :slight_smile:
I am drawing it the second day. Even I supposed that I have all symbols I will need, from time to time I have to add a new symbol and its footprint (veryfying if I really wont to use that element). I just was looking at distributors to decide if 2u2/100V X7R to use 1210 (like previously) or may be 1206 (I decided to left 1210).
I hoped I would finish it today, but I see I will not. I will be out of work for few days - so end of next week.

Now if I could just remember all of these useful keyboard shortcuts! I don’t know if my superannuated brain has space to store all of them. When we went to the grocery store yesterday, my wife suggested that we should wear matching shirts . . . . so I had a reminder about which girl I was supposed to go home with.

:smiley: :sunglasses: :man_teacher:

Dale

Not sure but suppose it will be no smaller then 0.000001mm. :slight_smile:
I’m used to use some grid for texts, but it is certainly not my ‘must have’. So I will use that ‘trick’.
As I remember Shift+Ctrl combination changes the keyboard from Qwerty to Qwertz. I tried to check that now, but didn’t worked. But I’m sure that sometimes when I used this combination as mouse behaviour modyfying I got into badly working keyboard.

Keyboard layout switching is normally adjustable at the OS level. I personally disabled all these shortcuts as I don’t change layout very often, and they may also conflict with some softwares.

So I suppose an year or two ago my brother comed to me (we work together) and said: Do you wont that features to be switched off? I said: yes and he swithced me it off. But at home I never thought about it and because of this it sometimes happens to have Qwertz. I just never spend any time to investigate what i can set in the system - have better things to do :slight_smile:

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