Track Routing Unreasonably

I am in pcbnew and trying to add tracks (it’s the first time I am doing this). I have two pads I need to connect and the best way to connect them happens to be a straight line. However, KiCad seems to like straight lines and goes straight down first instead of following the cursor diagonally. Actually, it pretty much draws the track right through another pad. Please see the attached image. I manually made the narrow track wide (in Windows Paint) so you can better see what I mean. It shows the line KiCad draws from the pad 2 of the ScrewTerminal to the current mouse position. As mentioned, the best way would be a straight line. I can set intermediate points by clicking the left mouse button but I would have to set at least a dozen of points and even then the track is a messy zig-zag. How can I get KiCad stop doing this and either by more intelligent or just let me do things manually?

What version of Kicad are you using and what canvas? OpenGL canvas is preferred. It seems that I had these kind of problems when I first started and switching to OpenGL and then setting some routing options? It’s been a while so I don’t remember the exact steps.

F11 will get you to the OpenGL. Then choose to place a track and hit e. This will give you some options to set. Also under preferences > general settings you will find some more things that affect laying traces. I’m far from a power user but laying traces is kind of intuitive once you get everything set.

I’m sure some of the more knowledgeable folks will wander by soon. :wink:

There is the shortcut “/”.
It changes the 45° part and the straight part.

For a list of all shortcuts use the “?” shortcut.

And as @hermit said the interactive router in opengl canvas is much more powerful. (It is a semi automatic router)

There is also Preferences->General->Limit Tracks to 45 degrees -> Off

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.