New feature: Nudge Nudge

[rmeldo]

Hi,

I am quite new to KiCAD. It took me a while to learn, but after a few months of use I feel quite at home with it and I find it very good. V5 is great. A lot of useful new features. The libraries work better for me than V4 and I like the capability to export to STEP, as I can import the board into Creo, the system we use at work and which I borrow for my home projects.

I have started to use the “move exactly” commands to finalise the positioning of components.

One feature which I missed from the start is the capability to nudge the position of footprints with the arrow buttons, with steps defined by the grid size. It is a very useful feature in PowerPoint and I intuitively keep trying to use it in KiCAD.

Has this feature been considered in the past? If not, could it be considered for future versions?

RIccardo

[bobc]

@rmeldo

One feature which I missed from the start is the capability to nudge the position of footprints with the arrow buttons, with steps defined by the grid size. It is a very useful feature in PowerPoint and I intuitively keep trying to use it in KiCAD.

Has this feature been considered in the past? If not, could it be considered for future versions?

You can already do that!

1. Select footprint
2. Press M or right click mouse and select “move”
3. Use arrow keys

Oops, missed important step!

[PCB_Wiz]

@rmeldo

nudge the position of footprints

If you mean multiple footprints, moved as group, use shift-click to select desired set, then the m + arrow keys step on the grid (as above).

[Rene_Poschl]

The select step is optional. One can press m while hovering above the footprint and use the arrow keys afterwards. (This is especially important in the legacy canvas as one can not really select a footprint there.)

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I noticed however that if the footprint is not on grid when one starts the movement that way it gets put onto the grid. (Like with the normal move operation so i would say this is to be expected.)
Just something to keep in mind.

Also worth mentioning, this works in kicad 4 and kicad 5.

[rmeldo]

That’s great thanks for pointing me to it. Seemed an obvious omission.

[PCB_Wiz]

@Rene_Poschl

I noticed however that if the footprint is not on grid when one starts the movement that way it gets put onto the grid. (Like with the normal move operation so i would say this is to be expected.)
Just something to keep in mind.

Interesting to see that is true for one footprint, but not true for multiple-selected moves.
I also see Ctrl-Arrow keys hop by 10x grid setting.

On other CAD pgms, under their ‘Set Grid Origin’ menu, there is a ‘Snap to selected’ item, which I think is missing in kicad ?
That would be useful in many cases where you want a known, large move, or some parts that are off-grid.