Is there a way to stop kicad from zooming way out when I use Ctrl-F to find components? Zooming to the whole PCB and looking for an 0402 is pretty much impossible. Can it just not change zoom and move to the component?!
This is what my Ctrl+F does.
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I use:
Application: KiCad PCB Editor x86_64 on x86_64
Version: 8.0.6-unknown-202410221755~51a3859d7e~ubuntu22.04.1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.1
FreeType 2.11.1
HarfBuzz 2.7.4
FontConfig 2.13.1
libcurl/7.81.0 OpenSSL/3.0.2 zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.9 zstd/1.4.8 libidn2/2.3.2 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.3.2) libssh/0.9.6/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.43.0 librtmp/2.3 OpenLDAP/2.5.18
Platform: Linux Mint 21.3, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, X11, cinnamon, x11
OpenGL: Mesa, NV106, 4.3 (Compatibility Profile) Mesa 23.2.1-1ubuntu3.1~22.04.2
Build Info:
Date: Oct 22 2024 17:55:19
wxWidgets: 3.2.1 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.74.0
OCC: 7.6.3
Curl: 7.81.0
ngspice: 43
Compiler: GCC 11.4.0 with C++ ABI 1016
Build settings:
Switching to software rendering didn’t zoom out as much, but this is garbage…
Application: KiCad PCB Editor x64 on x64
Version: 8.0.5, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.5
FreeType 2.13.2
HarfBuzz 9.0.0
FontConfig 2.14.2
libcurl/8.8.0-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1
Platform: Windows 11 (build 22631), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
Date: Sep 7 2024 02:39:48
wxWidgets: 3.2.5 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.85.0
OCC: 7.8.1
Curl: 8.8.0-DEV
ngspice: 42
Compiler: Visual C++ 1939 without C++ ABI
Build settings:
Have you tried the t hotkey? With it you can select any of the footprints by their RefDes and attach them to the cursor without the screen zooming or panning.
Depending on what your intentions are, there may also be other useful hotkeys. About half of the hotkey functions in KiCad do not have a key combination assigned to them by default. And with a bit of searching and experimenting you may discover some nice functions.
Just to mention what ought to be obvious…is cross probing. Zoom in to a small section with the pcb editor (makes it pan to center) and then select the schematic symbol in the schematic editor.
If you need to start with CTRL-F in the schematic editor, you need to then select the symbol in order to cross probe the pcb.
One quirk I have noticed for a while is CTRL-F often does not find a symbol the first time I hit the keys; it takes a second or third time.
Ok, so, a little more. I thought it was working after switching to fallback graphics, but no. It worked for a time, and I switched back, and all was well. Then, I opened the schematic editor to find something. Closed the schematic editor, and ctrl-f for R37. Nope, Zoomed out to where I cant see the part. I closed kicad entirely, same thing. Switched to fallback, same thing. I can’t get it to not zoom anymore. Its making the zoom useless. I’ll try the t thing, but this isn’t cool.
after closing and reopening again in software rendering mode it went back to zooming out, but not as badly…I just don’t understand why it is zooming at all. If I zoom in, leave me where I zoomed!
Ok, so here’s whats happening, and its really dumb behavior.
Lets say I search for C2, C2, C20, C21…etc match. Rather than cycling through at my zoom level C2, C20, etc, it zooms so all are visible. This is utterly useless behavior! I also set it to word, but it still matches all of those. So if we aren’t going to make it so we can only match the designator we’re looking for, can we not zoom, just move to hit 1, if I click next, not zoom, and move to hit 2, ans so on?
I mean, imaging searching a PDF for say BST, for bootstrap pins on an H Bridge chip, and instead of taking you to the next map, it zoomed out to show you every instance of BST all at once. You’d through your PDF reader through the wall 
Metaphorically of course 
So can we get the “normal” behavior for CTRL-F? PLEASE?! My best alternative so far is to click next repeatedly, faster than the software renderer can highlight and unhighlight to make a blinking spot on the PCB. Thats a ludicrous workaround!
Is @corry doing a project including a schematic diagram or a stand-alone pcb?
Cross probing from the schematic diagram works pretty well if that is available. But it seems to me that searching for reference designations ought to be a bit smarter than just searching for text. Am I missing something, or is there no way to search specifically for reference designations?
Yes OK the Words check box helps. But I feel like I ought to be able to search for reference designation C2 without that check box and without the software pointing me to anything other than that reference designation.