X,Y Axis Coordinate Directions UPDATED

This is an updated post… I saw that a few people read my original, but I deleted it when figured out what is going on. I figured I would re-post in case this helps anyone understand…

In the PCB Editor I set my grid origin to the lower left corner of my PCB.
I wanted the X axis to increase from left to right and the Y axis to increase from bottom to top.

I got that working by adjusting the Preferences - PCB Editor - Origins and Axes, however I was confused as to the settings. In order to get the X Axis to work the correct direction I had to have it set to Increase Left ! Just backwards from what I wanted.

Photo of my settings:

Photo of my coordinates: Showing the hole in the center of photo at 200 x 200 mils, which is what I wanted, but the setting for the X-Axis seemed backwards.

I finally figured out it has to do with the orientation of the Drawing Sheet! With it set to Portrait I had to reverse the X-axis direction. With it set to Landscape I can set the X Axis to increase to the right. In this case that orientation fits my PCB better, although it really doesn’t make a hill of beans of difference since I turn that object layer off so I don’t see it.

It is still confusiing, but thought I would let you know why I had to reverse the setting.

Here is my KiCad version information:
Application: KiCad PCB Editor x64 on x64

Version: 9.0.2, release build

Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.6
FreeType 2.13.3
HarfBuzz 10.2.0
FontConfig 2.15.0
libcurl/8.11.1-DEV Schannel zlib/1.3.1

Platform: Windows 11 (build 26100), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
OpenGL: ATI Technologies Inc., Radeon ™ Pro WX 5100 Graphics, 4.6.14800 Compatibility Profile Context FireGL 19.10.02.07 30.0.21002.46

Build Info:
Date: May 7 2025 02:29:49
wxWidgets: 3.2.6 (wchar_t,wx containers)
Boost: 1.86.0
OCC: 7.8.1
Curl: 8.11.1-DEV
ngspice: 44
Compiler: Visual C++ 1942 without C++ ABI
KICAD_IPC_API=ON

Locale:
Lang: en_US
Enc: UTF-8
Num: 1,234.5
Encoded кΩ丈: D0BACEA9E4B888 (sys), D0BACEA9E4B888 (utf8)

1 Like

The orientation of the drawing sheet should have nothing to do with the X-axis direction.

Based on the reversed text, it looks to me like you’ve flipped the board view so you’re looking at it from the bottom rather than the top. Check the “View” menu and see if the “Flip board view” box is checked.