Find & select similar items

[ttu_Don]

Is there a way to find similar items in a schematic & edit them as a group?

For example:
I want to change the reference field of all parts on the schematic from 0.05" to 0.2" & the value field from 0.5" to 0.1".

Sorry, but I’m used to Altium Designer, where I can right-click on the reference field, choose “find similar objects”, then edit what I want & have it applied to all selected items in the schematic…

I’ve tried changing the default text size under General Options from 0.05" to 0.2", but that doesn’t work. Plus, this would change all text to 0.2" when I want only the reference field to be 0.2".

I’ve tried selecting 1 reference field then shif-clicking other reference fields to select multiple fields, but that doesn’t work either.

Suggestions?

Could this feature be implemented in the next build?

[hermit]

The files are text based so you could use a text editor. I’m not a ‘power user’ so I don’t know if that feature is hidden somewhere or not. Having text files probably makes these kinds of things low priority for developers since there are other tools available though.

[dchisholm]

@ttu_Don

. . . . For example:
I want to change the reference field of all parts on the schematic from 0.05" to 0.2" & the value field from 0.5" to 0.1". . . .

In general, KiCAD does not have a “Find Similar Items” feature.

For the specific example you cited, does this help:

(That screenshot comes from an old nightly build, so the menus may not correlate exactly with your KiCAD version.)

Dale

[SembazuruCDE]

@dchisholm

For the specific example you cited, does this help:

Unfortunately, he is asking about Eeschema, not Pcbnew. He kinda hid the distinction in his question.

@ttu_Don

Is there a way to find similar items in a schematic & edit them as a group?

You don’t say which version you are using. A new feature in v5 under the Tools menu is “Edit Symbol Fields…”:

But that only seems to be able to change the value of the fields for all components in a table format, not the properties of the fields (like you are wanting to do).

[bobc]

@ttu_Don

Is there a way to find similar items in a schematic & edit them as a group?

For general changing of properties as in your example, there is nothing in KiCad.

For a one off, I might try a text editor. If I needed to do it regularly I would write a script outside of KiCad, but that only helps if you know Python I guess.

@ttu_Don

Could this feature be implemented in the next build?

eeschema is due for a revamp, if the idea catches the eye of a developer it might get implemented, but there is quite a long list of “would be nice if” feature requests.

It would be really nice to have a general purpose feature to select items, apply a function to them, and then also save that as a macro, but KiCad seems to go along the lines of disparate dialogs specific to particular tasks.

[dchisholm]

@SembazuruCDE

Unfortunately, he is asking about Eeschema, not Pcbnew . . . .

Oops, my oversight!

Dale