Clicking directly on a feature of the footprint is what you want to do. I personally click either onto the outline on the fab or courtyard layer. Also i set silk to invisible while working on the layout as it is only distracting. Additionally, i disable the visibility of the value field via the items tab.
The high contrast mode (shortcut h or left toolbar) is also quite helpful as well as the outline modes for traces, zones and pads (left toolbar)
Oh and the KiCad default colour scheme is shitty. You might want to take a look at https://github.com/pointhi/kicad-color-schemes (i planned to add a duplication of the eagle default scheme but did not yet find the time to do it.)
Yep, every program (above certain complexity) has it’s peculiaritys and weird behavior. Some of it starts annoying you, and others you get used to, and don’t even notice anymore after some time.
Some time ago, on an empty afternoon I decided to an experiment in KiCad. The goal was to approach KiCad as a “drawing program” instead of a PCB design program, and make as much as possible use of copy and paste to multiply features.
It was a fun experiment and also worked quite well. It’s on:
As you use KiCAD you will soon find another use of the multiple pads with the same number useful for connectors and similar components. Say you have a shielded connector that has 4 solder points for the connector shield. In KiCAD you can have all 4 shield pads sharing the same name so you only need one pin on the schematic. This makes it easy to make the same net connection to all 4 footprint pads (circuit ground, earth shield, HV anti-touch, etc…). Similar technique for shielding cans that go around sub circuits.
I’m usually annoyed by accidentally hitting N (for decreasing grid-size) when I mean to press M.
Did anyone else find the same? - and is it easy to re-map the grid-shortcut (to e.g. G and shift-G or something, for Grid)
it is supposed to be addressed by the devs somewhat, but working with KiCad for years now I still do not feel in full control when trying to select footprints in PCBNew.
When for example I want to exchange footprints positions (eg. place R1 where R2 was, and R2 where R1 was), if I stack these one above the other it’s very complicated to be able to select proper one. But normally in busy areas (footprints with tracks underneath them) it is cumbersome to select what I really need.
Fix is targeted for 5.1.6, but in my Pre-5.1.6 it still does not work properly.
There might be a better option than moving footprints to achieve this. I would change the refdes between the footprints and run update pcb from schematic with “by reference”.
A true exchange position tool might however make for a good feature request. If you are motivated then check if such a request already exists and if not make one. I think inkscape has something like that implemented so it could be used as a guide for GUI design.
Your refdef change might be an option if we have identical parts to exchange. However in case of different parts (like e.g. 0603R and 0603C) that use the same physical footprint but different 3d model, things get more complicated.
A dedicated tool IMO could be too complex solution for such a simple and rare operation.
What would be rather easy and helpful, would be an option to copy/paste full X/Y coordinates. Now I can copy either X or Y, but if module coordinates would be additinonally displayed and edited as a pair (X.xxxxx, Y.yyyyy) - should by easy to implement (just GUI thing) and might be useful on some occassions.
Provided that there are only two items to swap, I’m not sure if it requires a new feature per se. I would like to see the scripting possibilities enhanced so that a script could be triggered with a hotkey. There’s already a wish for that. Then writing a script would be very simple and using it would be very simple, too. It doesn’t need a GUI.
On the other hand, because it’s so simple, it wouldn’t hurt to make it built-in, even if with no hotkey assigned by default.
In the pre-5.1.6 this is still broken. You shouldn’t be requested to do tricks to select an object.
Clicking anywhere within footprint’s area should give you the chance to select the footprint.
In case there’s more than just a single object, say: track, other footprint on another layer - display the “disambugation” list.
It is rather annoying to have to “fight” with the tool. Sometimes I must try a dozen of times to select my footprint…
When you have a selection problem (I think such actions are not so often) try to switch for a moment to Legacy toolset. Not sure how now but in some previous version it helped me in selecting what I wonted and opened the right edit dialog box.
Thanks for the hint. I will try it before biting the nails
However I would prefer to 1) verify if it is really an issue with current KiCad, and 2) make sure the Developers are aware of it and are able to reproduce the issue for fixing.
UPDATE To clarify: Latest Pre-5.1.6 fixes the issue.
I would modify the pad in the footprint with the footprint editor or create a new footprint.
Modifying the pad in the layout is fine but error prone, for example when the layout is updated from the schematic.
My approach:
Mounting holes in the schematic if they belong to a net.
Mounting holes not in the schematic if they don’t belong to a net.
If the board has boh types of mounting holes I place all holes in the schematic.
