kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Christopher Buckley <mallardproductions@xxxxxxxxx>]

This is one of my pet peeves with the component editors in particular.

I'm accustomed to using AutoCad which provides a seperate "Grid Snap" and "Grid Size" and is much more useful.

Consider creating a diode, transistor, resistor, capacitor symbol, each of which can fit within a 1 x 1 (or 25 x 25mm) area. Pins might need to be aligned at 1/10 inch or 2.5mm. I want my grid SNAP to be set a 1/20 or 1.25mm, and my grid SIZE to be 0.125 in or 5mm. This allows me perspective on the design with accuracy and assurance ALL items will line up on specific points, in regards to specific reference points (the grid itself).

This is a problem with Kicad where the grid size IS the snap size. I find it particularly problematic when establishing sizes of entities ( lines, pins, text). If I want to place text at a certain location, I need to change the grid size to be able to change the snap size. This introduces significant errors when editing other parts of the component, by forgetting which grid size I need to revert to. In the end it creates alignment problems when inserting components, demanding I go back and redraw it!!!

Likewise, the existing KiCad grid divisions don't provide for HALF-SIZE measures that are available when grid snap and grid size are uniquely changeable. Grid sizes are 1, 2, 5, 10, 25, 50, 100, 200 as opposed to 1, 2, 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 20, 25, 50, 75, 100 or whatever snap you want.

Even so, I still have the odd alignment problem with AutoCAD but it's usually easily resolved. This most often occurs when I turn the grid snap off when trying to do something like intersect a line with an arc to establish an exact angle, distance, or theoretic point in space. However, the grid remains available so I can see where the point in space will be in relation to specific coordinates.

Granted AutoCad uses a Floating point system, but a 32 or 64 bit integer can theoretically provide enough resolution to make a fairly small snap size for any given grid size. I would think it's just a matter of seperating them. Additionally, the snap size would not necessarily need to change given a particular zoom scale.

As far as specific component alignment problems, to solve some AutoCAD problems, I ended up writing a lisp function that would audit the database and "quantize" entity points and move them to a nearest point within a specified fractional size. (1/8, 1/16, 1/10, 1/20)






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On Fri, 3/22/19, Brian Piccioni <brian@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

 Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] [eeschema/question] use mouse position	instead of custom position for selecting objects?
 To: "'Tomasz Wlostowski'" <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>, "'Kicad Developers'" <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 Received: Friday, March 22, 2019, 10:32 AM
 
 From a position of (mostly) ignorance, isn't
 the real question 
 
 "how can things be off-grid in a system
 where all the coordinates are
 expressed in whole numbers"?
 
 I looked at the test file
 (https://kicad-info.s3.dualstack.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/original/2X/2/26f98
 c3b4f02bdb0a4e47a18a05c5dba187cb199.zip), changed
 the grid to 1 mill, and I
 still can't get a wire to connect to
 the ends of the components (focusing
 mainly on BBC - see attachments)
 
 I can understand a situation where, for
 example, real number round results
 in an issue but here were have a file
 where everything is expressed as an
 integer, where the least significant
 digit corresponds to 1, the smallest
 gird, and yet somehow the parts are
 "off-grid". That doesn't seem to be a
 user error.
 
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
 From: Kicad-developers
 <kicad-developers-bounces+brian=documenteddesigns.com@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 On Behalf Of Tomasz Wlostowski
 Sent: March 21, 2019 7:42 PM
 To: Kicad Developers <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
 Subject: [Kicad-developers]
 [eeschema/question] use mouse position instead
 of custom position for selecting
 objects?
 
 Hi all,
 
 In the thread [1] on the forum, someone
 is having hard time trying to edit a
 schematic with off-grid wires. Does
 anyone here remember if older versions
 of Kicad used the mouse or cursor
 position for grabbing objects? Is there a
 chance there's a regression in V5/V5.1?
 If so, I'm willing to fix this.
 Editing a schematic with non-aligned
 pins is now next to impossible...
 
 Cheers,
 Tom
 
 [1]
 https://forum.kicad.info/t/struggling-with-schematic-layout-editor/15842/9
 
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