Im trying to create a complex custom symbol, and right now i feel the editor is worthless. It does not have useful features like moving a circle or any geometry for that matter to a specific coordinate. Also, if you have a circle geometry, you can’t edit the size (or location as mentioned).
Also, there is no way to import a vector file into the symbol library either. The symbol editor is extremely lacking. it needs to have more “CAD” features for editing geometry. another example is say doing a Polar or rectangular array of a geometry. if i wanted to do copy (array) a circle around a center value by giving a number of copies, and the angle. I hope that makes sense.
The circle: single left mouse click on the circumference highlights the centre so you can position the mouse on the center for moving.
Double left click on circumference shows properties for altering diameter, width, fill, layer etc.
Clicking on the outline of most shapes shows the properties.
Measuring and placement:
Bottom of screen, under the workspace there are: X &Y and dx & dy.
Hover mouse over something and press space bar will zero dx & dy. Move mouse and read change in position.
There are buttons for changing Polar to cartesian on left.
Right mouse click anywhere to show “select” and highlight “Positioning Tools” and see many methods for exact placement.
There is the Anchor / Origin point in the LH row of buttons towards the bottom for creating a reference point.
Yes, two things. First we need to know your used Kicad version to judge your question.
And second your requirements for the symbol editor are too high.
The symbol editor is not meant as a graphic designer tool, it’s use is for creating basic geometric shapes, no art. And for this task the editor is not worthless, but sufficient (not great, but enough).
That said you should try the upcoming Kicad version v8 (currently available as nightly release candidate, see Windows Downloads | KiCad EDA and read+respect the warning above the nightlies-section).
This version introduces a properties panel for the symbol editor. This allows to manipulate the coordinates of all graphic items.
Additionally v8 adds SVG+dxf import into the schematic editor and the symbol editor. So you can use your preferred drawing tool for creation of nice graphics and simply import into Kicad.
