The grouping feature in KiCad 6 is fantastic. It saves considerable time. However, one thing I’ve noticed is that when trying to align respective groups of parts of difference sizes the group origin appears to be a geometric center of the composite footprint. While logical to some degree, this includes the text of the footprint which skews the perceived center. This establishes a scenario where it is hard to align differently shaped parts. It must be done manually and by diving into the group to find a shared point of reference and then manually moving.
TLDR: Is it possible to set the anchor point for a group of parts or specify a single foot print within the group and its associated anchor point as being the point for movement?
it’s not really the definition of an generic group-anchor-point, but you may try:
select the group and then choose RMB-click–>context-menu->special tools → move with reference. Now you can choose the reference-point for the following movement yourself.
or
select group, choose a pad inside the group, move mouse-pointer over this pad and start click-dragging the group. The mouse-pointer and the group-movement should center around the choosen Pad
The are surely not bad suggestions. The behavior I’m after still isn’t captured in these features. Starting with suggestion 2, if you select a specific pad within a group and then use the move command it simply drags the footprint within the group and this movement does not extended to the entire group.
The first option appears promising. However, it appears linked to manual movement with the mouse which can be imprecise. It would be great to have a reference point of the group where you could then use Shift+P to move the group relative to a point specified outside the group. At present Shift+P provides a mechanism to move the group relative to a point but this movement is to the geometric center of the group.
Figure out the exact placement of one group relative, set the local reference point and then move all the groups. From there you can shift all of them manually by a set amount in an iterative fashion using Shift+M. Workable, but somewhat cumbersome.