[SOLVED] Can't highlight net from a pad in KiCad 7

[Griffin]

In Kicad 6 I could easily ctrl+click any part of a net to select and highlight it.

I had to change the setting in Preferences > Editing options to get net highlighting to work in KiCAD 7, but it still won’t highlight a ground pour or other unless there’s a trace to click on. There will always be at least one pad, but sometimes there is no trace for the net, or a trace is hard to find. I get around this by adding a temporary trace to click on, then deleting it when done.

Is it possible to get the KiCAD 6 behavior where I could highlight a net by ctrl+clicking a pad?

[paulvdh]

There are two separate highlight mechanism in KiCad. One is the “Highlight tool” in the Schematic Editor at the top of the toolbar on the right side. the other is under the backtick key (Under the [Esc] key on a normal US 101 / 102 / 103 key keyboard, and the backtick works well for me, but apparently it’s in a very inconvenient location on some keyboards.

But you can easily assign it to another key. Just go to Preferences / Preferences / Hotkeys and then search for anything highlight related.

Edit:
There are more highlight options, several do not have a key assigned by default, so there is plenty of room for some experiments

[mf_ibfeew]

highlighting with CTRL+click works for me (clicking on a track or clicking on a pad). Checked version: v7.0.7 on Win10.

requirements:

• preferences–>pcb-editor–>editing options–>modifier keys–>CTRL-action == highlicjt net
• the pad-checkbox must be enabled in the selection filter (bottom right)

[Griffin]

This seems to be a bug with 7.0.0. I’ll need to upgrade.

[paulvdh]

V7.0.0 is ancient. Increments in the third digit are bug fixes, and those get released roughly once a month, and with anywhere between 50 or more bugs fixed each month, V7.0.0 is far behind.

Normally, it’s recommended to always update for the bug fixes, but (unfortunately a bit too often) such a bug fix gets pulled back after a few days. So if you are dependent on KiCad for earning your sandwiches, then wait one or two weeks before the update.

After a newer version is released, it gets it’s own blog post on https://www.kicad.org/blog/categories/Release-Notes/ and that also has a list with the bugs that are fixed in each version.

[Griffin]

I updated to 7.0.7 and the bug persists. This must be a new one.

Nets can’t be highlighted from a pad. Only by clicking through the pad on a connecting trace.

Is nobody else is having this problem?

[Griffin]

Update, not a bug!

It was my selection filter. I only had footprints and tracks checked. Works as expected after checking the box for pads.

Thank you mf_ibfeew