Locking in GAL should prevent editing, not selection

[Johannes Agricola]

Hi,

I just tried to select a pad of a locked footprint in GAL by clicking on it, which seems to be impossible. This is required to quickly jump to pins in an open schematic window on footprints with a lot of pins. Locking footprints after placement is also unavoidable on footprints with many pins.

In the default canvas, jumping to the pin of a locked footprint by clicking on it is possible.

Application: kicad
Version: 4.0.1-3.201512221401+6198~38~ubuntu15.10.1-stable release build
wxWidgets: Version 3.0.2 (debug,wchar_t,compiler with C++ ABI 1009,GCC 5.2.1,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
Platform: Linux 4.2.0-23-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Boost version: 1.58.0
         USE_WX_GRAPHICS_CONTEXT=OFF
         USE_WX_OVERLAY=OFF
         KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
         KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
         KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
         USE_FP_LIB_TABLE=HARD_CODED_ON
         BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON

As always, thank you for your great work on KiCad. :D

Cheers,

Johannes

[Maciej Suminski (orsonmmz)]

Is not this behavior intentional? I thought that locked footprints are meant should not be modified until they are unlocked.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

This is how I would interpret it. If a parent object (footprint) is
locked, then it's children (pads) should also be locked. If the legacy
canvas allows editing pads of locked footprints, then this is a bug in
the legacy canvas.

On 11/28/2017 5:09 AM, Maciej Suminski wrote:
> Is not this behavior intentional? I thought that locked footprints are
> meant should not be modified until they are unlocked.
>

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

Hmm, I have always thought this locking was actually only meant for the position, but not the footprints other properties. Meaning that you could not accidentally move the footprint around, say if it was a mounting hole or some other part that needed to be placed exactly.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

This in also what the property in http://docs.kicad-pcb.org/4.0.7/en/images/Pcbnew_unlock_footprint_option.png indicates. If you use the hotkey L to toggle the locked property, it will toggle between "Lock footprint" and "Free" or "Lock pads" depending on which was active before.

So locked does not seem to be intended to lock the global property editing of the footprint. I don't think we need another popup to warn about changes in a footprint. One can cancel the properties dialog if one regrets the edit, even if one hit the edit hotkey unintentionally.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I forgot. Locking has three states. A more accurate term would be
fixed or immovable. Locked implies that it cannot be edited.

On 11/28/2017 8:30 AM, Nick Østergaard wrote:
> This in also what the property in http://docs.kicad-
> pcb.org/4.0.7/en/images/Pcbnew_unlock_footprint_option.png indicates.
> If you use the hotkey L to toggle the locked property, it will toggle
> between "Lock footprint" and "Free" or "Lock pads" depending on which
> was active before.
>
> So locked does not seem to be intended to lock the global property
> editing of the footprint. I don't think we need another popup to warn
> about changes in a footprint. One can cancel the properties dialog if
> one regrets the edit, even if one hit the edit hotkey unintentionally.
>

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

Mmm, I think the term lock is good, but we may want to write "position" in the text labels to make this explicit.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Locking discussion here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1745627

This bug is complaining that they can't *select* something, not that they can't *edit* it. They want to select it to perform navigation from it.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

Fixed in revision 37f7faf4336e37c8df4116d2a67379ef73da4ccf
https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/patch/?id=37f7faf4336e37c8df4116d2a67379ef73da4ccf