When you’re placing components before routing, I like to be looking at my schematic and be in a mode where I can type in the ref des and the system automatically picks up the component with that ref des so you can move and place it.
In other words, I want this kind of behaviour:
- Enter mode Move | Component | By Ref Des.
- Type in the ref des of the part to move
CAD system picks up the part, you place it on the PCB where you want it. - [Automatically] Goto 2 unless you hit escape or right click.
My suspicion is that this is one of the (surprisingly regular) areas where DOS/Unix based CAD packages still, after all this time, are streets ahead of modern CAD packages and it’s not possible because you tend not to be able to go into a particular mode and just do that same thing over and over again.
It’s a similar thing to not being able to just move a component; if you click on, say, where a component and wire meet, you then select whether you want to move the component or the wire. Or click on a component and it asks you if you want to move the bloomin’ ref des! It’s always better to be able to select move component or move wire and the CAD package then knows exactly what it should be moving. Drives me nuts that you can’t do this on modern CAD packages. Too much clicking!
Thanks