Invert 'insert' direction

[Andrea_Simeoni]

When you place, say, a label or a pin you can press insert to add another one below. If the label ends with a number, it adds the next one automatically - great!

Usually I have all my MCUs with the first pin of each port at bottom. So starting from the top I have: 15, 14, 13, etc…

Is there a way to tell Kicad (example pressing shift+insert) to place the next label or pin above the current one?

[paulvdh]

Eeschema / Preferences / Preferences / Eeschema / Vertical pitch of repeated items: …

However, I prefer another and more flexible way.

1. Insert a column of labels in an empty area.
2. Draw a box around as many labels as you need.
3. [Ctrl +C] and [Ctrl +V] to copy them.
4. R (Rotate), X (Mirror in X-axis), Y (Mirror in Y-axis) to adjust orientation.
5. Move mouse cursor and place the row of labels at their destination.

Note: If the labels are connected to a “Bus”, you can also add the wires in step 1a and then copy, rotate, move them together with the labels itself.
Practice a bit with this, using such bulk operations to multiply stuff help you draw schematics quicker.

A few years ago I did an experiment with using copy as much as possible to do a quick “bogus” KiCad project.

Replicating Layout features manually with arrays & blocks [Tutorial]

I just made a little mini tutial on how I would use array and block functions to create copies of features in a repetitive design. By using copies and arrays a lot of tracks can be layed out quite fast this way if your schematic / PCB structure is suitable for it. For other, more advanced ways, scripts such as the “replicate layout” script are much more suitable. Using arrays and block moves is very intuitive and easy to learn and it seems a worthwhile technique to have in your toolbox. Makin…

[Andrea_Simeoni]

Thanks, I didn’t think about mirroring!