kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Clemens Koller <cko@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, There!

I didn't use that functionality in KiCad, but in my other designtool I ran into
the following case:

- There is a finished design X.

- The footprint library envolves over a year and lots of footprints
get migrated in it's zero orientation from pin 1 is on lower left to
pin 1 is on upper left.

- Now, design X needs an update. I want to update all my footprints to
be up-to-date with my latest library.
Then, the footprints with the changed zero orientation need an additional
added +-90° or +-270° rotation while they get updated from library.
This was not easy to achieve without manual work.

Regards,

Clemens


On 2016-04-13 08:16, David Godfrey wrote:
> Hi Chris,
> 
> A rotation of the selection is not the same as a rotation of the
> individual components.
> Consider you already have the components roughly in a grid, and you need
> to rotate them by 20 degrees.
> Rotating the selection means you have to do major repositioning of every
> component to get them back in the correct area.
> 
> However rotating the components within the selection means they are
> still in about the right position, so only minor placement adjustments
> are required.
> These minor adjustments can likely be made using the align and
> distribute tools
> 
> I Agree half-implemented features are bad, better to update them and
> properly implement.
> 
> Regards
> David G
> 
> On 13/04/16 08:53, Chris Pavlina wrote:
>> 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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