kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>]

GAL already has this. Block or multi select, Ctrl-M for "move exactly" (or use
the context menu), and type an angle. Just rotates the whole selection, then
you can place your rotated resistors.

Considering legacy is on its way out, I'd rather not keep crusty old
half-implemented legacy features around to require maintenance.


On Wed, Apr 13, 2016 at 08:50:38AM +0800, David Godfrey wrote:
> Hmm,
> 
> I'v not used it on Kicad but the ability to change the orientation of an
> arbitrary selection of footprints is something I've used many times in
> Altium.
> 
> Ideally you want to be able to set an absolute orientation, and also a
> relative (to current) angle adjustment.
> 
> This is especially useful when designing boards like LED matrices and
> wanting to put all resisters on a specific angle (eg: 21.3deg).
> You can then do an array alignment with the same outer limit you used
> for your LED alignment.
> Then move the group of resistors into position relative to the LED's.
> 
> Now running your tracks becomes trivial.
> 
> Without the ability to auto adjust the orientation on a selection of
> parts the job becomes long and tedious.
> Some of the PCB's I've done this on have over 1000 LED's and resistors,
> and generally you need to orient both the resistors and the LED's
> 
> So in summary, I'd like to keep the ability to do this, but on a
> selection instead of globally.
> And being able to alter it as an absolute angle, or as a relative to
> current (prefix the new angle with + or - to get relative movement)
> would be beneficial.
> 
> Regards
> David G
> 
> On 13/04/16 06:40, Chris Pavlina wrote:
> > I wonder how many of you are even aware of DIALOG_ORIENT_FOOTPRINTS. It's
> > hidden in the Secret Menu in pcbnew (the spread-and-place) one, menu item
> > Orient All Footprints. The code hasn't been touched since 2010 except a few
> > cleanups, and it seems really simplistic and useless to me. I was going to
> > upgrade it to floating-point angle entry like everything else, but....
> >
> > Does _anybody_ even use this? It seems utterly useless. I have no idea when
> > you'd want to globally apply an orientation to footprints. Can I just tear it
> > out?  :P
> >
> 
> 
> 
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