Coming from Eagle, I just wanted to say how much I like being able to move a symbol and have its pin connections break apart.
That makes it super simple to do things like changing your mind on the connector orientation, but keeping the relative positions of the signals on the connector the same. Several times I’ve just moved the connector to break its connections to net labels, mirrored around the Y axis (sometimes I rotated it), then move it back so it picks up the connections again. Nice!
Sure you run a risk of disconnecting nets you didn’t intend,but that’s what ERC is for.
Similarly, I really like that the footprint editor doesn’t prevent you from having two pads with the same number. It’s really frustrating in Eagle when you have to change pin/pad numbers. Eagle won’t let you change a pin number to one that already exists, So, I end up either having to delete them all and start over, or rename them all to some bogus name that won’t conflict with the names I’ll assign. It’s much nicer to allow the conflicts to occur–by the time all are renamed, there is no longer a conflict.
I don’t have much time on KiCad yet, and many years experience on Eagle. But, so far, I have to say I like KiCad’s implementations better in most all cases.
I do miss not being able to rotate symbols and footprings while moving with a single right right mouse button click. It has become “muscle memory”. I know I can get the menu with the right mouse click, but it really slows down placement when you are “in the groove”.
I also get a bit frustrated by Kicad’s method of dis-disambiguate on symbol or footprint selection. Maybe I just haven’t figured out where I should click on the symbol and the menu that asks which I want doesn’t always pop-up. More of an issue in pcbNew–it keeps thinking I selected a pad instead of the footprint (which I never do–it should always be the footprint, IMHO).
On Eagle, you just keep clicking until the selection you want highlights. You don’t move the mouse, just keep clicking.
Both minor things, and annoy me, mostly because it’s become so automatic in Eagle.
Kudos!