OCD = Obsessive, Compulsive Disorder, which in this context means “How neat and tidy does one want their Schematic?”
I used the wrong word here. “Your” is supposed to mean “anyones”. I tend to be a little “over the top” with Schematics and PCBs as far as OCD goes. 
I wish (and so does my wife) I could say the same about my household chores. 
Someone else is having problems with grid. Maybe it is related with the sat version of Kicad.
Hi,
A couple of days ago, I fell off grid (PCB). Then read how to correct it, and posted above how to do that.
Now I’m off grid again! I’ve check the grid settings, read the @eelik FAQ (which pretty well confused me, as it’s miles too long to follow [just me?] ), then clicked the grid, the alignment etc tool like a chimp.
Now I have app 5x alignment marks on the screen, and no idea how to correct the grid.
One of the comments, said ‘He’s so used to it, that he didn’t know a long click was difficult’ Well it’s all difficult, and I judge a product by it simplicity, especially these days. I’ve just thrown away a good Sony radio because of the same problem (I have another that I can program in the dark)
I want to stay with Kicad, but I keep getting tempted away.
P.S Is there a different between off grid in SCH and PCB?
C, who’s still off grid.
**EDIT:**Ok, I’ve set a user grid to 0.2 and I’m back on grid, but that’s not what was advised previously?
The schematic and the PCB are very differrent with regarding to the grid. In the schematic the grid exists to make drawing and connecting wire/pin ends easier. In the PCB editor the grid exists to allow placing physical parts (footprints) and their connections, and also drawing graphics, in some meaningful way.
In the schematic there’s no correspondence between the geometry of drawings and some concrete, physical real-world entity. Therefore the grid exists solely to make drawing easier. Therefore you should use only a grid which doesn’t cause problems for making connections, which is 50 mils (assuming that all symbol pins use that same grid). And coordinates (x,y positions) should never be a problem, they are totally irrelevant. The simplest possible advice for the schematic and symbols is: never change the grid, keep 50mil grid.
In the PCB your goal is to create a physical board with physical dimensions and positions, and the grid is a tool which can be used to put things into certain positions. Sometimes you want to draw a board outline with certain width and height. Sometimes you want to put resistors in a grid formation in some location. Most often you need one common grid which allows placement and routing for most of the parts. Those different tasks can utilize different grids.
If you want to keep it simple, choose one grid size for the PCB which is small enough to allow drawing the edge outline dimensions, positioning all the parts, and routing the tracks. Depending on the size and used parts it may be for example 0.1mm, 0.2mm or 0.5mm. Then you can occasionally use a more coarse grid which is a multiple of the smaller basic grid. Never change the grid origin if you want to avoid all troubles.
…and set it to 127/127mm (5000/5000mil) to begin with. That accomodates both metric and imperial.
@eelik Hi E,
I was getting mixed up between grid and grid origin. When one get’s frustrated and tired, this is what happens. And my suggestion to keep it as short and simple still applies.
I have had quite complicated (Lots of details to remember) things explained by a small series of GIFs or images, this is miles easier for me, as reading long sentences, generally fails to convey what’s needed.
Thanks
C
There is an unknown bug or something that changes the grid every time randomly. This is what this thread is acknowledging.
Is it possible you are hitting the hotkey “N”? That tripped me up a bunch when I first started with KiCad until I disabled it in KiCad > Preferences > Hotkeys. Search for “Switch to next grid”, right click for context menu, and select “Clear Assigned Hotkey”.
Yeah, I find myself accidentally pressing N quite often. By default, shift-N goes in the other direction I think.
Indeed, shortcut n is an excellent candidate to be the issue here, I appreciate this idea and I will try to track this.
However, sometimes I open the “Grid Settings” to Reset Grid Sizes since they may be messed up. And I see this setting that I posted on this comment here (picture). See, grid options 1 and 2 are sometimes “empty”.
What happens if this Fast Switching Grid 1 and Grid 2 are empty like the way they in this image here?
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