Wishlist: Footprint searching and viewing

[Evan Shultz]

At https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-symbols/pull/445 a KiCad user wrote "I think a search function for searching footprints would be really nice".

In response to the user's question, I posted https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-symbols/pull/445#issuecomment-380595014. This shows the Footprints window where text strings can be typed in and the list of footprints filtered. Using this feature a user can find footprints matching a query, but there isn't a preview of the footprint.

Then at https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-symbols/pull/445#issuecomment-380607963 the user responded with the Library Browser window and said "No I was looking for a possibility to search for an footprint when I'm defining an footprint of an symbol in the schematic editor". That window does provide a preview of the footprint, but no searching is possible.

It appears that there are 2 ways to search for footprints in Pcbnew or the footprint editor, either by the footprint name or clicking on an individual footprint and getting a preview, but neither method combines searching by footprint name along with viewing the footprints. (Or I just don't know how to do it.) I also think it would be nice to combine searching by footprint name while also getting a footprint preview.

I see that bugs 593660 and 593661 have a similar title, but they specifically mention this in CvPcb so they're not quite what I've suggested above.

Application: kicad
Version: (5.0.0-rc2-dev-114-g8fcbb64a4), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.3
    libcurl/7.54.1 OpenSSL/1.0.2l zlib/1.2.11 libssh2/1.8.0 nghttp2/1.23.1 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Windows 7 (build 7601, Service Pack 1), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.3 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.60.0
    Curl: 7.54.1
    Compiler: GCC 7.1.0 with C++ ABI 1011

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

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

See also: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1750374.

We should be able to share a design and some code for all of these.