User:Ctag/KiCad

Library management

Following some of the instructions from https://hackaday.com/2017/05/18/kicad-best-practises-library-management/

Initial pcbnew layout

Select the Mode : footprint icon, then context-click on any ONE footprint, select ↳Global Spread and Place ↳Spread out all footprints.

Frustrations

• Important information is put only in the window titlebar. On my computer the titlebar is very short (horiz) and so that information about what active library is open is lost in the library editors. I wish the titlebar was respected as a place for just the application name, and any other information found there were also present in the actual UI somewhere..

• The two library editors treat libraries totally different. For example the schematic component editor's save function says "Save entire library, including what you just worked on?" while the footprint editor says simply "Save footprint." It's a frustrating lack of cohesion in the way a user approaches these tools.

• Updated footprints aren't brought into a PCB with netlist-read. Instead you have to manually refresh the footprint with right-click -> footprint -> exchange-footprint.