Can't change units with dialog boxes open.

[Chris Elliott]

This impacts me more in PCBNew and the footprint editor as I always leave my units to inches in Eeschema.

If I open a dialog box and need to change from mm to in (or vice versa) I have to first close the dialog box, change my unit type, then reopen the dialog box. This can be very annoying when having to design using both units.

Please allow changing units in the dialog boxes (and appropriately converting the values) without having to manually close and then reopen the dialog boxes. Even if the only way to implement this is for the dialog box to automatically close and reopen, it would streamline the process by only having to click one thing instead of at least 3 things.

[Laurent Haas (efcis)]

You don't indicate the version you're working on, but on v5 PCBNew, in many dialogs (if not all - the devs could could confirm ?), you can enter unit inside the entry field and it will be automagically converted.

Ex : "15mil", "15mm", or "0.1in" (no quotes)

[Laurent Haas (efcis)]

BTW, you can also use thous as "15th".

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Should be “all”. (Anywhere it’s not can be logged as a bug.)

[RyanFav (rerouter)]

Using 5.0, I can confirm most dialogs do not allow entering these units, equally the method feels a little hidden unless you specifically know about it,

I believe the OP is asking for something closer to a metric / imperial radio button inside the dialog, displaying the conversion when opened or selection changed.

The main place I could see this being used would be the design rules screen, as many fabs report there minimums in a mix of mm and thou, and at present you cannot type any text into the routing options area,

Application: pcbnew
Version: (5.0.0), 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
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
    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=OFF
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON

[RyanFav (rerouter)]

sorry not most dialogs, some, so far only the DRC routing options (could not see an edit button for bug comments)

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

@RyanFav, yeah, not being able to edit comments is THE most annoying thing about launchpad.

Could you be more specific about "DRC routing options"? Do you mean the 3 minimum size textboxes in the DRC Control dialog? (They seem to work for me, although I'm running 5.1 so perhaps they were fixed more recently.)

[RyanFav (rerouter)]

Yes, Correct the 3 minimums,

[Chris Elliott (sembazuru)]

Sorry, haven't paid attention to this report in a few days... Sorry for forgetting to mention the version. I'll paste it at the end of this comment.

I didn't know about being able to enter a the units and have KiCad automagically converrt to whatever are the currently viewable units until I saw someone post about that after I submitted this wishlist request. But, that doesn't solve the issue of forgetting to switch from in to mm (or vise versa) to confirm measurements against a drawing.

Yes, I was thinking something along the lines of what rerouter stated when he commented:
"I believe the OP is asking for something closer to a metric / imperial radio button inside the dialog, displaying the conversion when opened or selection changed."

The method isn't important (radio buttons, toggle button, duplication of the two toolbar buttons, etc). Also allowing the keyboard shortcut that works in PCBNew (<CTRL>+U on my install) in the requesters would also be nice.

Version info: (This is actually a post v5 build from the testing folder to enable the action menu on windows...)
Application: kicad
Version: (5.0.0), 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 8 (build 9200), 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
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.8.0
    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_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON