Measurement tool is not functioning properly in Footprint editor

Layout Footprints
1

Hello,

I was working in the footprint editor and wanted to add measurements to a footprint as recommended by this link:

The idea was add dimensions of pads and their spacing and the spacing between pads and the courtyard as per instructions in the link above. When I selected the measurements icon on right, it is not showing the hidden measurement tools and they are locked. There appear to be 3 or 4 other measurement tools which open after clicking on the arrow symbol. They had appeared twice after which they had disappeared. Left clicking on the measurement icon opens only one type of measurement tool that is same as with pressing CTRL-SHIFT-H on keyboard.

Is this an error in KiCad 9 footprint editor? How to unlock the other measurement tools which are hidden? I’m also not able to resize the toolbar to open the other measurement tools. The location of measurement tool is on right in the image below at fifth from bottom.

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KiCad version info

Application: KiCad x86_64 on x86_64
Version: 9.0.6+1, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.8, FreeType 2.13.3, HarfBuzz 10.2.0, FontConfig 2.15.0 ,libcurl/8.14.1 OpenSSL/3.5.1 zlib/1.3.1 brotli/1.1.0 zstd/1.5.7 libidn2/2.3.8 libpsl/0.21.2 libssh2/1.11.1 nghttp2/1.64.0 nghttp3/1.8.0 librtmp/2.3 OpenLDAP/2.6.10

Platform: Debian GNU/Linux 13 (trixie), 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, X11, cinnamon, x11

Build Info:
Date: Nov 10 2025 15:10:44,wxWidgets: 3.2.8 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24,Boost: 1.83.0
OCC: 7.8.1,Curl: 8.14.1,ngspice: 44.2,Compiler: GCC 14.2.0 with C++ ABI 1019
KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale:
Lang: en_IN,Enc: UTF-8,Num: 1,234.5,Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)

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Holding down the left mouse button while hovering the cursor over the dimension icon will cause the other dimension options to fly-out and allow you to select the one you need. Assuming I am understanding the question correctly.

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It’s called a “long click”, you can find that in the manuals. Each of the buttons with a little black triangle in the lower right corner can fold out to select another function.

2 Likes
4

That worked. Holding the mouse button revealed the other measurement tools from which I could select some. Thanks.

5

Following up on paulvdh’s comment, you can “long click” on most items in KiCad to see what options are available. For instance, toolbar menu item icons with the small arrow in the lower right corner will all have additional options accessible by the “long click”.

Also, doing the same thing to items in your schematic, symbols, PCB layouts, footprints can show more options. It is a very useful feature.

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I didn’t know about the “long click” feature before. I can try it wherever an arrow appears on a toolbar icon. Thanks.

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An important thing to know is that the dimension tool is not really flexible as it doesn’t allow at which distance from the part, the measurement can be shown as in FreeCAD. The measurement tool in KiCad is arbitrarily fixing the distance to be a minimum which is perhaps bad. The length of parallel bars which are used to indicate distance between them cannot be adjusted and they are very long compared to a pad or any other part in the geometry of a component which is modeled using a footprint .

A feature request in Kicad is that the length of parallel bars which are used to indicate distance between them should be adjustable as with FreeCAD dimension tool

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You can adjust a bunch of defaults for dimensioning in: PCB Editor / File / Board Setup / Text & Graphics / Defaults. You can also change these for individual measurements by selecting a measurement and edit it’s properties.

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Adjusting extension line overshoot fixed the issue. It is found by right clicking on the dimension measurement and clicking on properties

Another adjustable parameter is Extension line offset. This has also the same property for adjusting the length of parallel bars.

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I completed the dimensioned footprint. Here it is.

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Is having lines inside the footprint that intersect pads a good idea? It seems not possible to remove them while taking measurements of spaces inside the footprint.

11

You should probably put the dimensions on a different layer (eg User.Drawings)

1 Like
12

I made the drawings in F.silkscreen layer. How to change them so that the drawings are in user.Drawings layer? Changing to user.Drawings layer hides the lines that are on pads.

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I switched to user.drawings layer and am redrawing the measurements. This seems the way.

15

You can also change the layer of the existing dimensions.

  1. Enable: Footprint Editor / View / Show Properties Manager
  2. Select the measurements.
  3. Use the properties manager to change the layer.

You can also change the layer by editing the properties of a dimension, but that only works with one measurement at a time.

1 Like
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Thanks for the info. I made the measurement drawings again in user.drawings layer.

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Attached is an updated version of the drawings in user.drawings layer with the length of parallel bars adjusted. It took some time to figure out how the lengths of the parallel bars can be adjusted.

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More or less off topic, but to clarify terms:

The “parallel bars” are called extension lines. I found this link that has more information on the terminology used in engineering drawings:

https://engineeringtechnology.org/engineering-graphics/line-conventions-and-lettering/dimension-extension-and-leader-lines/

1 Like
19

It may be better to hide the drawings drawn in user.Drawings layer in other layers like F.Silkscreen, F.Cu and others.

This would be a nice feature to have in KiCad.

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