When moving items in the past, one could press equals to (=), and type in the exact location (X, Y)you would like to move item to. Now it no longer works.
I tried the special tools but can’t figure it out. The tools seem to be about moving a certain delta in the X direction, as opposed to typing in the X coordinate value.
Is there a way to still do this?
KiCad version? ------
Using v 5.99 now. But before this version was about 2-3 years before I last used KiCAD
Context menu -> Special Tools -> Position Relative to… (and don’t select any special reference)
Thanks, I actually tried this and it didnt work for moving a bunch of items, from the selected move point. But I see it works if one selects just one component.
It’s natural because each item has its own position (using some certain defined point in the item, like a corner or endpoint) but a a selection of items doesn’t.
IIRC the old positioning dialog was removed before v5.1 and replaced with two different actions/dialogs, it’s possible that some functionality was lost.
Absolute positions usually do not make much sense in KiCad, because (in KiCad V5.1.x) the origin (0, 0) is in the top left corner outside the drawing area.
In KiCad-nightly V5.99 the internal coordinate system still works the same, but the user coordinates (direction in which axis increment and origin) can be modified by: PCB Editor / Preferences / Preferences / PCB Editor / Origins & Axes.
Moving a block and then entering absolute coordinates does not make much sense because there is no clear indication of what (0, 0) of the block itself is. The closest you can get (that I know of) Is to first make a block selection, then a Right Click to get the popup menu and select: Special Tools / Move With Reference. This lets you select a reference position in the selection which will then be attached to the cursor and can be dragged to a destination position.
You could for example prepare a few destination positions by drawing an array of via’s or other items that can be used as snap points.
But for a better solution we need to know more about your specific use case. I am beginning to suspect that for example the Replicate Layout script may be a better solution for you.
When moving a block in Kicad-nightly V5.99, you can open the popup menu and then select: Special Tools / Position Relative to and then use the local origin as a starting point:
After that the “Offset X” and “Offset Y” are relative to that origin, which makes these offsets (close to?) absolute coordinates.
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