it sounded like you were being pretty judgmental and “better than”, just like you were in your first reply.
I’m not looking for a sloppy shortcut or fix. I’m fully aware of how to make the schem and PCB sync, and I’m aware of how to modify the footprints attached to a schem symbol so that will match the board.
However, you may consider that KiCad has an “edit footprint for this board only” option for a reason. Because there are times when one needs to do this. And it sure would be handy to have a way to tell kicad, “Hey, don’t mess with SW1 at all, but update all other components to match the schem.” The only workaround is to create a custom footprint just for that one part, for a one time use, put into the library, save, match to that part on the schem, then update. Not that hard to do I guess, but pretty clunky. Seems like it’d be a lot easier to do the way I described. So much so that I was sure the feature was there and I was somehow overlooking it.
I haven’t been messing with this for 12 days straight. I’ve used the method I’ve described to make it work, but have hit other issues with text moving around even when matched with an identical footprint. I’ve already dealt with it, and moved on, but figured the discussion was worth having for future projects. I was only asking if there was another easy solution I wasn’t aware of.
Bear in mind that it’s impossible to know what every person uses and designs their circuits for. There are times one needs to break the “rules” in order to accomplish what they are after. Don’t always assume someone is just being lazy and not wanting to learn.
Not intended at all, but I do get remarks in that direction quite often.
You make it seem complicated, but it’s not much more than a handful of mouse clicks.
There is no “need” to do this, but I do confess that sometimes do this too. My main reason for this “quick fix” method was that I regarded creating a project specific library, putting a footprint in there and updating the links from the schematic as a distraction. But I have mostly abandoned this method because I prefer the robustness of having those footprints in a separate library. If a footprint is worth creating or modifying, it’s also worth saving. Also, just because a certain workflow is possible in KiCad, does not mean you have to use it. I also quite often turn it around. Then I load a footprint from the PCB directly into the footprint editor and make some modifications and put it back on the PCB. This is quite handy if it takes some iterations to get it right. But after I’ve made these modifications I export the modified footprint to a project specific library anyway, just to make sure I never loose my modifications.
But we’re drifting away quite far from the original topic.
Have PCBnew only update selected parts from schem?
No, that is not implemented.
Which resulted in the following question:
Why do your modified footprints get updated (reset to library defaults?) when you update the PCB from the schematic?
I do not have an answer for that. I know KiCad can do this and it may be a simple checkbox but I do not have a good enough picture of what is actually happening in your situation so I can’t help there.
Why is this discussion getting so frustrating then? You have been asked quite many times for more details, because people have told you several times that KiCad works for them just like you want it to work. I even recorded a video, asking how your workflow differs from the workflow which works like you would want. You have been asked for detailed steps and/or an example project where this problem can be seen. You haven’t given any, but keep telling you know what you are doing. We can’t help you any more.