OpenGL component move, any better in V5?

In the Legacy canvas mode, I usually used the “Drag” command to move components/vias over the board to arrange them neatly.
In Cursor (“Select”) mode i had my Crosshair cursor that make it easier to align/measure stuff, and the components could be moved around, SNAPPING TO GRID, and maintaining the connections.

Things are different for the OpenGL canvas. First, I can’t have my Crosshair in Select mode (Why??..).
Then when in “Interactive drag” mode, the components/vias move freeley and ignore the grid (Why??). If I switch to just “Move”, the components move snapping to grid, but the connections aren’t maintained.
The old “G” command does not seem to work in OGL. This is my major reason to switch between OGL and Legacy back and forth.

Am I missing something, some option/command that could help me? Or is it improved in the V5? I don’t want to switch to V5 now (production environment), waiting for Bugfix releases to kick-in. Im stil on 4.0.7

It’s controlled in the display settings. Open the display settings window and select “Always show crosshairs”.

I no longer have the stable KiCad on this computer, so I can’t try to replicate your issues. I’m sure someone else can help.

It’s not clear to me what you mean by those cursor and snapping problems. Maybe you have to find proper settings or commands. You should describe more details (what exactly you do, what exactly you expect, what exactly happens). Or give us a screencast or screenshots.

There’s no footprint dragging in the OpenGL canvas which would keep the tracks attached to the footprints. See https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1743099 and vote there. I’m surprised to see that people want to use v4 dragging, I just don’t find it any good.

Thanks for your replies so far.
Regarding the “Always show crosshair” option, it’s not available in 4.0.7 stable, so probably a new (and welcome) feature of later releases. Good to know.

Regarding cursor/snapping.
I often do a tidy-up of my project, and rearrange the items on board to e.g. line up stitching vias or other components. Crosshair makes it easier to line things up. In 4.0.7 stable, when in “Select” mode (the Cursor tool), I don’t see the Crosshair even if the cursor mode is set to Crosshair in the left toolbar. But this probably has been changed in the newer releases (according to @SembazuruCDE).

Now I want to move components/vias around, but want them to be “Snapped to grid” so I don’t have to move them very precisely with a mouse. I can change grid spacing and get necessary resolution this way.
In the 4.0.7 OpenGL mode, there are two selectable actions for mouse drag: “Interactive drag” and “Move”.
“Interactive drag” generally does what I need, but it does not snap the component to the grid. So when in “interactive drag” mode moving components around, it’s virtually impossible to get things precisely lined up.
When I change the drag behaviour to Move mode, the component moves snapping to grid (OK), but connections do not follow.
Old (legacy, non-OpenGL) canvas provided “Drag” tool which allowed to move the component with snapping to grid, and keeping the tracks connected. It wasn’t pretty (as the track started to be routed at free angles so needed cleanup afterwards).
What would solve my problem, is the “interactive drag” (where tracks are nicely re-routed automagically) but alligning the dragged component to the grid. That’s it! Snap-to-grid seems so obvious to make things arranged neatly, I don’t know why it isn’t there by default for “interactive drag” tool and how to turn it on (if possible at all).
So the conclusion is: legacy style drag was not great, but new much improved “interactive drag” is missing a key feature for me: snap-to-grid when dragging.

So you still need to wait for couple of days… The next release in 5.0.x series :slight_smile:

I don’t even see a way of dragging a footprint without snapping to grid in v5 OpenGL canvas. And there’s only one Move command, no “Drag”. Moving is activated when you select the footprint and drag it with the mouse or nugde it with the arrow keys. As said, it always snaps to grid.

Actually “gridless” moving is just moving with very small grid.

OK now I see my faulty thinking: indeed component move just moves, no tracks maintained.
What I was doing/testing, was the Via moves when tidy’ing up my Via stitching.
Vias do drag freely, without snapping to grid in the “interactive drag” mode, and loose track connection in “Move item” mode.
Sorry guys for making confusuion about the Components drag.

I’ve installed the V5 on another machine. The V5 brings back Crosshair for Select mode, and the “Interactive drag” snaps to grid. Moreover, I can change grid spacing when routing (right-click menu) which was also not possible in OpenGL V4.
So… the V5 brings a lot of improvement compared to 4.0.7, hopefully my F9/F11 will finally get some rest :slight_smile:

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