Few observation to share: kicad 4.0.6, Mac OSX

Layout
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I finished my first pcb with kicad. I would like to share few observation that worth a discussion.

  1. Block operation
    Why cannot we create a group of components and each time we select a component from group should select entire group till we un-group it. I am not sure if we have this kind of functionality in kicad.

  2. Rotating components
    When rotating component and component goes outside mouse pointer range, next “rotate” command does not work till we hover again on component. Is there any solution for this, so that we can do successive rotation?

  3. False clicks while laying out tracks
    Sometimes, I observed false click (kicad assume a click though we have not clicked mouse) during laying out tracks which result in broken track and I have restart again by clicking again.

  4. Block rotation operation cause grid alignment problem which later create artifacts in track laying out to this group.
    To fix this we have to manually snap all components to re-align it which break existing tracks badly.

I hope this is helpful and if anyone have solution to above problem please share with me.

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Rotating has to do with how the part was originally laid out. I’ve also found that where you click when you rotate can have an effect but this may only be the block option.