But when i duplicate the layout of the components, it places them upside down and at a slight angle (please see attached image). is there a way I can duplicate the components EXACTLY? As in, at the correct angle? I’m aware that I can go into preferences and change the unit of rotation angle and then rotate them manually to the right place. but that’s a bit of a faff and it’s clearly not the way in which the plugin was intended to work.
also; if you look closely you can see that all of the newly replicated tracks look as though they are highlighted or something.
They are coloured much lighter than the ones on the original layout which are coloured accordingly to their layers…red for front copper etc. Does anyone know why this is please?
FYI: i have tried various different combinations of the the tick box settings in the plugins interface including having all of the boxes checked apart from the ‘replcate group only’ box as I didn’t think this one sounded like it was what i wanted at all.
anyways… any help here would really be appreciated.
thanks in advance
ok so I’ve worked out the problem with the funny angle.
it turns out I was selecting one of the LED’s in the orignal layout and then opening the replicate plugin… however, the LED’s in my design are all at different angles. so it was taking the angle of the LED and then replicating the new layout with the that angle as a reference…
so probably exactly how they intended the plugin to work
I solved it by selecting one of the contact button pads before opening the plugin instead as I know that they laid out perfectly horizontally and vertically.
So all that there is to work out now is why are the tracks highlighted as they are still… please see image below…
ok so now I’ve also worked out the problem with the newly duplicated tracks being highlighted… well… i say i’ve worked it out… i actually just saved the project and closed kicad (completely). Then reopened and the tracks were showing as the correct colours
This is indeed as intended.
The Replicate Layout plugin can also be used to replicate multiple instances in one go, and some instances can for example be aligned with the North side of the PCB, while other instances are aligned to the East or West side of the PCB or even on the bottom. That is why you choose one reference footprint, and all the rest is replicated according to the location (both orientation and side) of that footprint.
