Off-grid schematics are too easy to create
Description
Eeschema has a shortcut to change (actually cycle) the grid settings. This shortcut is quite easy to hit by mistake and it adds unwanted behavior that requires people to fix symbol placement constantly, and this is not wanted especially when versioning project files.
This discussion started on Kicad Forum, here: https://forum.kicad.info/t/shortcut-n-to-change-the-schematic-grid-is-horrible/42372/24
Issues regarding the shortcut n
- Changing the grid is mostly never used, and should not be used that frequently.
- It is not a toggle, it cycles the grid size, so it is not quite intuitive and easy to return back to the default.
- It is a silent bomb. It changes an important thing but it does not do anything, visually, near or close to the pointer or where the user is looking.
- It is physically close to a really important (always used) shortcut
m
(to move things) - Fun fact, the Symbol editor that would use this function more frequently, does not have this shortcut available.
I would like to have the cycle grid
action moved to another shortcut that is not the simple n
, very far from other important shortcuts. If possible, use a combination of keys. As others are saying, if not possible to have an easy fix, this shortcut could be removed by default. So the ones looking for this function could just add the shortcut themselves.
In addition, it would be nice to have a big (red) alert text somewhere telling the user the gird has changed since this is a very problematic feature.
KiCad Version
Application: KiCad x86_64 on x86_64
Version: 7.0.2-6a45011f42~172~ubuntu23.04.1, release build
Libraries:
wxWidgets 3.2.2
FreeType 2.12.1
HarfBuzz 6.0.0
FontConfig 2.14.1
libcurl/7.88.1 OpenSSL/3.0.8 zlib/1.2.13 brotli/1.0.9 zstd/1.5.4 libidn2/2.3.3 libpsl/0.21.2 (+libidn2/2.3.3) libssh/0.10.4/openssl/zlib nghttp2/1.52.0 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Ubuntu 23.04, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK, ubuntu-xorg, x11
Build Info:
Date: Apr 17 2023 07:57:57
wxWidgets: 3.2.2 (wchar_t,wx containers) GTK+ 3.24
Boost: 1.74.0
OCC: 7.6.3
Curl: 7.88.1
ngspice: 38
Compiler: GCC 12.2.0 with C++ ABI 1017
Build settings:
KICAD_SPICE=ON