I’m using KiCAD 6.06 recently migrated from 5.x.
So I had this problem:
And I found this topic:
My grid was set to 10mils and set it to 50mils moves some parts and things are hunky dory now. However, I’m wondering how I got in this situation. The schematic was working fine yesterday but it and most of the parts were borne in KiCAD 5.x.
Jacob
I’m also wondering what is supposed to be the default grid for a schematic in KiCAD 6.0.
The standard grid in the schematic editor if 50mil.
It’s a trap that many newbies get caught in, while people the old farts have fallen into habits that “work” and have forgotten it could ever be a problem.
I don’t really understand why it’s even possible to change the grid (at least for schematic symbols, wires and labels) in the schematic editor. But at least it’s relatively easy to repair in KiCad V6. Just a few hours ago I wrote down a short tutorial on how to do so for another user in the link below.
This is really a recurring problem, kind of small, but one of the most annoying usability problems in KiCad. I hope it will be changed in some way or another. Even years ago I thought what I would like to add in the Getting Started document (which has now been rewritten). I would have written an emphasized note:
WARNING: Never change the default grid. The way to the “Desparate” category of the user forum is paved with the corpses of those who have not heeded this advice.
I found your gitlab thread for this issue (and added some comment)
Yeah, whats confusing is why did it change? Is there a key stroke that can change it? It was working yesterday but today the grid is different and I didn’t change it. I check the part that was off grid as well and it is on a 50mil grid in symbol editor.
Out of curiosity I opened the schematic I started with yesterday and it too is on a 50mil grid. So I dug deeper.
My schematic is in a git repo, so any file changes show up easily. I changed the grid to 10mils and saved the schematic. No change to the repo. Huh.
I exited the schematic and reopened, gird still 10mils. Huh.
If I was using Window’s I would assume that this is some stupid registry setting, but I’m in Linux.
I’m also seeing this “Reset Grid Sizes” button in the bottom left of the form that comes and goes but when it’s present doesn’t seem to do anything.
I am noticing that the “Fast Switching” grid feature. I’m also noticing that these change without rhyme or reason and again, when I set them they do not alter the schematic or project file yet seem to remain set between runs of KiCAD.
The “Fast Switching” grid feature uses Alt+1 and Alt+2 and I’m thinking that I probably hit one of these keystrokes and changed the grid when the schematic had focus and I tried to do an Alt-3 to get a 3D view of the schematic.
Jacob
The current grid is not part of the project, but it is system wide.
To verify, just set the grid to some weird value, then close the Schematic Editor, open another project and open the schematic of that other project. The grid will then still have that same “weird” value.
Maybe you changed it in some other project?
Interesting that it’s a global value.
But nah, I was only working on one schematic yesterday. I think I hit Alt-2 instead of Alt-3 with the schematic window having focus instead of the layout. I just love looking at the boards in 3D glory. I’m for ever shutting down system sounds when I’m using Blender in Windows due to some yet to be discovered keystroke that is close to something I’m doing in Blender with my fat fingers.
Jacob
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