“I am not looking for auto placement …
But give it a try:
- after schematic–>board you have the “pile of footprints” like in your above picture
- draw a rectangle board-outline next to the footprint-pile (must be big enough) (not necessary the final board-outline)
- select some (or all) of the footprint-pile
- execute: main menubar → Place → Autoplace Footprints → Place selected footprints
Maybe you like the result. You can also delete the board-outline after autoplacement
It’s not sorted but at least now the footprints are not overlapping.