kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just rotate them first, then place. We don't need specific tools for every
conceivable permutation of movements. Unless even more people come in
saying they need this, or Wayne overrides me... I still don't think this
needs to stay.
On Apr 13, 2016 02:16, "David Godfrey" <info@xxxxxxxxxxx> 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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