In the 8.0 release announcement page, there is a list of the main changes/improvements. It shows a video/animation of dragging multiple footprints that have tracks, and the maneuver drags and re-routes the tracks on-the-fly.
How do I do that? I tried, with single or multiple footprints, but it doesn’t work (the footprint(s) is/are moved but not the tracks). I tried both on v8.0 and v7.0 (the page says that in v7, there was limited functionality to move individual footprints with tracks connected).
Seems to work on v7. On v8, albeit with a layout created with v7, I wonder: am I still doing something wrong, or is this functionality still catastrophically buggy? (I don’t mean to sound critical or overdramatic or ungrateful — it really fails catastrophically!)
I first selected R1 and R2 and Dragged them; only one of the tracks going to the HH pin of R5 was dragged with it; all other tracks remained as they were. Not only that; the action left the four “phantom pads” where the resistors were, with net labels and all; except that there is nothing in there; if I click, the copper zone gets selected; I do B to fill the zone, and the zone fills over those “phantom pads”.
I then selected Q1 and Dragged it. The result was identical to having clicked M to move it, or to just click on it and move the mouse (“mouse-drag it”) — Q1’s footprint moved alone, no tracks moved with it.
Behaviour seems somewhat “random”: I closed without saving and reopened; tried dragging R5 alone; a bit better: the same issue with dragging only one track (the one coming from the left to the HH pin), but at least it did not leave the “phantom pads”.
I did UNDO to bring R5 back to its original position and then repeated dragging both resistors; exact same behaviour with respect to not dragging the tracks with them, but this time only R5 left the phantom pads behind.
So, again, am I doing something wrong? Is it that it won’t work because this is a layout created with v7 and opened with v8? (although it had been saved after being opened with v8, so it is in principle a v8 layout file).
There is still another issue, somewhat similar to this: because the track connecting the two HH pads of the two resistors is a single track (that happens to pass exactly through the center of the via), then when dragging, that track moves with the two resistors remaining a straight line between them, disconnecting from the via as if the via wasn’t there. If I individually connect each resistor pad to the via, then the dragging maintains the “anchor” at the via, as expected.
I can see how from an implementation perspective, this may be challenging to do; but would you agree that it is a misfeature?
