Sticky selection modes (lp:#1793216)
Original report created by marshall (marshscholz)
In pcbnew, (kicad 5.0) I mostly want to select footprints to move.
unfortunately, pads are also selectable in kicad and on large components I
usually end up getting the clarification menu and having to select the
footprint specifically from either it's pad or actual footprint.
This adds an extra point and click operation to most component moves and is
highly annoying.
At the very least, adding an option to disable pad selection (or off by
default and selectable using modifier key for pad info?) would be great.
however, at my work I have an opportunity to play with pads layout/viewer
and I think they implement this well. There is a "select" right click
context menu, sort of like "filter selection" in kicad,
that applies globally to every future selection and is persistent.
however, it has options like:
everything
footprints
glued footprints
tracks
vias
pads
board outline
graphics
hardware (mounting holes, etc)
So you may do something like select -> everything (current behavior),
or select -> footprints (disable track, outline, pad selection)
to easily filter out things you don't want to manipulate.
once I found this menu, I found it extremely intuitive to use and think
kicad would benefit from being able to persistently prefilter selections in
an unburied menu.
Especially since you tend to do strings of like operations (aka, moving
only, then adjusting traces, etc)
Original tags: ui