Realigning modules to the grid

I have been working on my first layout in KiCad. I had set my grid to 50 as recommended but (being a new user) it somehow was different grid spacing. The end result was modules were placed so that the pins did not match up with the 50 spacing. I could not find an easy way to then realign the module back onto the correct grid position. The workaround I used was to delete the module and reload it from the net list.

Does anyone know of the correct/easier way to achieve this?

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While hovering over the footprint, press G (“grab”) and it will snap to the nearest grid point, than right click to free and place the component back to the board. I hope you haven’t like thousand of them because you’ll have to move it one by one…

What about if you go into “footprint” mode and then click “Move all footprints”? Think that should knock them into alignmeent with the grid? BRB, going to destroy an old design :smile:

Oh yeah, that worked. It totally blew up my design, but that worked :wink:

Maybe moving footprints one by one is safer after all :slight_smile:

I just meant that I took an existing design, used a completely different grid, deleted all the traces and then did a bulk move. So it was more that I moved all the parts from their former position and killed the traces. Wasn’t sure if @smayze was looking to move stuff on an existing board but if there is a problem with the grid, it might be best to start over.

Thanks for the feedback. I appreciate the quick response. I knew I had tried the Grab operation before but it did not work. I may have missed something so tried it again just now, as well as the “Move all footprints”. I am now wondering if the issue is related to the actual foot print. The issue was corrected with the both the methods for a LED. But did not work for a 7SEGMENT. The pin pads remained off the grid. I would upload an image of what I mean but I have not earned my stripes yet.

What works for 7SEGEMENT is to simply delete the module and re-reading the Netlist which is an OK workaround for that case.

What’s the pitch of the 7SEGMENT footprint? PCBNew uses a single anchor point (I usually specify that as the center of the object, or occasionally the “Pick & Place Point”) that is aligned to the grid, and more or less ignores the pads. Something like an LED probably looks fine since it’s basically two dimensional, but a bigger part with multiple pads might not look “lined up” when in fact the origin is perfectly placed on the grid.

I believe you can usually see the anchor point as a little blue cross.

Good point! I will have to go back and check but I am now certain this is the issue. Since the methods described worked for the LED. This particular 7SEGEMNT was my own attempt at a footprint! I will have to recheck it against the data sheet again. I thought all was OK as when imported from the NetList, it is OK.

Thanks!

Just to close this thread - the footprint was at fault. I guess I took the data sheet literally and put more emphasis on the relationship of the package to the pins than what is needed. i.e. a better approach for the foot print would be to model the pins first (on the grid) and then just “sketch” the package outline around that. I was taken in by the precision offered and modelled the package first then placed the pins relative to that outline. Technically it was correct but the result is the pins are not on the grid!

Lesson learned.

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