Grid size spontaneously changes

[Ron Burkey]

In eeschema, if you run an ERC, and then use the links in the ERC window to jump to the location of an error, the grid size can spontaneously change. (For me, it happens annoyingly often.)

I consistently use a 25-mil grid, and the change (when it occurs) is always to 50 mils.

This has been an ongoing annoyance for me for a long time (since version 4, I believe, when I started using KiCad), but I have hesitated to report it because I cannot fully work out the conditions under which it occurs. Here is my best attempt at a procedure to reproduce it using today's nightly build:

1. Create a hierarchical design, and put some kind of an error on a child sheet.
2. Set the grid size to 25 mils.
3. Save and exit.
4. Run eeschema again, and verify that the grid size is still 25 mils.
5. Run the ERC.
6. Use the ERC links to jump to the error.
7. Verify that the grid size is now 50 mils.

Application: kicad
Version: 5.1.0-unknown-e90452d~82~ubuntu16.04.1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.2
    libcurl/7.47.0 OpenSSL/1.0.2g zlib/1.2.11 libidn/1.32 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.4.0-53-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.2 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 2.24
    Boost: 1.58.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
    Curl: 7.47.0
    Compiler: GCC 5.4.0 with C++ ABI 1009

Build settings:
    USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
    USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[Anton (antonpupkov)]

A short video would help to understand the problem.

[Ron Burkey (rburkey)]

If you had trouble reproducing this, Anton, I'm not surprised. I had to try 4-5 times myself just now to find a file that would do it for me. :-(

Here's a link to a video: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1tWBqG4JSWKHy-wKvSMJkyuoRfkrMNihj (The video is about 45 seconds, but it really stops changing after about 25, so you can skip the last half of it. Sorry for that. I couldn't figure out how to get the thing to stop recording.)

For whatever it's worth, the schematic I used to produce the video is here: https://github.com/virtualagc/virtualagc/tree/schematics/Schematics/2005252A. I artificially created a problem (not present in the linked files) by going into one of the child sheets and moving a connector pin (one of the oval-shaped symbol objects) away from the wire it's normally connected to.

[Jon Evans (craftyjon)]

Please keep reporting bugs even if you aren't sure how to reproduce them all the time! Someone else might be able to add more information and help get it fixed.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

Fixed in revision 734e61d4c29fc49526295d0fb966852ebe49a5df
https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/patch/?id=734e61d4c29fc49526295d0fb966852ebe49a5df