kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Fabrizio Tappero <fabrizio.tappero@xxxxxxxxx>]

Dear Ruth,
your feedback is really useful. Especially because it focuses on
inconsistencies across different tools. I would like to propose to you to:
1) use the list of problems you made to present a list of solutions where
the problem is quickly mentioned. In this way others on this mailing list
can comment.
2) work on fixing these problems. I can help you there.

let me know if you could be interested in putting the time.

cheers
Fabrizio


On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 10:34 PM, Ruth Ivimey-Cook <ruth@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Fabrizio,
>
> Thanks for your encouragement. May I return it in saying I have
> appreciated your existing efforts to improve things :-) I am currently
> using a nightly kicad: 2017-04-07 70c961f on Mac: apologies if I'm treading
> old ground on some things but the Mac build dropped out for a while.
> PcbNew:
>
> 1. The "Remove" I mentioned is in the OpenGL context menu in pcbnew
> between Flip and Move exactly. IMO should be "Delete".
>
> 2. The hidden item: I was looking for the 'update all filled zones'
> command, to renew them all following some component moves. I eventually
> found that click on edge of the zone the Zones submenu has Fill All and
> Unfill All, which seem to do the trick though I don't know whether that is
> really correct.
>
> 3. While looking at the Zones menu it has the text 'merge zones', which
> seems interesting, but then the items present appear to be about adding
> more zones (duplicate, add) rather than merge... Was there a merge (union)
> zone somewhere?
>
> 4. I also spent ages looking for the setting to change the clearance
> between tracks and zones; for some reason I did not expect it to be in the
> zones settings, but in the track settings (I thought Clearance in the Zone
> Properties was about clearance to edge-of-board et al). In the same area,
> it is not clear to me what 'Antipad clearance' means...
>
> 5. The "Exchange footprints" context menu opens the "Change Footprint"
> dialog.
>
> 6. On the change footprint dialog, you have an Apply and Cancel button; as
> expected Apply leaves the dialog open, but it is semi-modal; you cannot
> select an alternate component to change, and it seems unlikely that having
> changed once you expect to need to change it again immediately after. Can
> we change "Apply" to a dismissing "OK" button?
>
> 7. The "Select Layer Pair" menu item opens the "Select Copper Layer Pair"
> dialog.
>
> 8. Not quite in the same vein, but could the Select Copper Layer Pair be
> embedded in the main menu, as the normal Layers panel is? I would prefer it
> was always open at the side.
> CvPcb:
>
> As a new user, I found "CvPcb" to be a very confusing name and it took a
> long time to understand how it fitted in the workflow -- aided mostly by
> forum posts. I would suggest a name change to "Footprint association
> editor" or similar.
>
> 1. The 'settings' wheel on the toolbar has a tooltip "Edit footprint
> library table" while the equivalent menu item has "Configure Libraries" and
> the dialog itself it "PCB Library Tables". Two different icons are used.
>
> 2. View selected footprint is not on the menu, and could be, as could
> perform automatic... and delete all... actions.
>
> 3. Menu item "Edit footprint association file" could perhaps be added as a
> toolbar item, and/or reworked: does it not make sense to "load" or "save"
> such files? Could there be text or a link to help describing what "equ"
> files are?
> Footprint Editor:
>
> This is of course very similar in some ways to Pcbnew, so why are the
> tools available so different?
>
> 1. Both interfaces have an anchor/origin tool but use different
> terminology and different icons for it.
>
> 2. Maybe there are good internal reasons but I see no user reason not to
> include the dimension and filled zone tools for footprints.
>
> 3. Both interfaces have line/polygon tools but use different icons.
>
> 4. It would be great to be able to import one footprint into another using
> the footprint tool, even if it was a copy not link operation.
>
> 5. The Show/hide layers manager option is missing in the FP editor.
>
> 6. FP editor "Show edges sketch" and "Show Text sketch" don't appear to do
> anything for me. The name would suggest though that the 'Show pads in
> outline mode' (etc) actions / terminology should be preferred.
>
> Finally the toolbar containing the grid, zoom controls on the FP editor is
> shorter than the equivalent in pcbnew.
> Parts library editor:
>
> 1. The tooltip for browsing the library uses the text "Library Browser -
> Browse Components" while the equivalent for Footprint uses the (clearer, In
> My Opinion) "Open footprint viewer".
>
> 2. The tooltips for selecting the current library have "Select active
> library" or "Select working library". I would prefer "working" but would
> prefer consistency more!
>
> 3. The Save option uses tooltips "Save footprint in active library" and
> "Save current library to disk", which confuses me. It may be that different
> things are happening underneath, but the user doesn't (shouldn't need to...
> ) know.
>
> 4. "Delete component from current library" -- neither "active" nor
> "working"...
>
>
> ...
>
> I think that's enough for the moment (?!!), and I hope this is useful.
>
> Regards,
> Ruth
>
>
> On 16/06/2017 16:51, Fabrizio Tappero wrote:
>
> Hi Ruth,
> thanks for your feedack. I put quite some energy in trying to fix UI
> problems. I just need a little bit more time... ;-)
>
> It would be great if your could provide clear suggestions about those
> hidden functionalities.
>
> cheers
> Fabrizio
>
> On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 4:27 PM, <ruth@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>>
>> One of my earliest impressions of KiCad as a new user was confusion over
>> UI inconsistency: terminology, menu layouts, and shortcuts in particular.
>> For common actions there should be a common trigger (key, click) with a
>> common indication (icon, tooltip words etc). As an example I noticed again
>> yesterday in pcbnew, mostly you 'delete' an element, except when you
>> 'remove' it!
>>
>> Personally, I find Command-D very handy as a duplicate action; I would be
>> happy to see that used whenever it made sense. However, the best option
>> would be to build in a keymap editor (surely there are components for
>> this!) so we don't need a one-size-fits-all solution.
>>
>> While on the topic, it would be really good to include more actions on
>> the main menu: there are many things hidden in context menus that don't
>> need to be.
>>
>
>