Move Exactly dialog lost functionality

[eelik]

Referring to https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1771424, "Move Relative and Move Item in PCBNew don't move selection properly".

That was fixed by simplifying the Move Exactly dialog. However, existing functionality was lost (moving relative to other than the current location). There's no other way to do the same thing. At least one other user found it useful:
https://forum.kicad.info/t/cannot-work-around-origin/11865

I already argued in the above mentioned bug why it's useful.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Use Position Relative To... for that.

[eelik (eelik)]

Well... no, because it doesn't let you select the user origin which has already been set. And you can't select e.g. any grid point, you can select only items and whatever are their center points.

Logically, if you think about the names of the dialogs, the functionality I miss belongs to the "Position Relative To" dialog. (Except that it wouldn't be "relative to reference *item*".) The old functionality should then be moved to that dialog.

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Use a target. Place it at the user origin, or a grid point, or whatever and position relative to that.

[eelik (eelik)]

OK, that's half fair. But still the usability isn't in the same level. It would be if the selection mode would work for example like this:

It wouldn't use an item as a reference, but a point. Before clicking "Select" the user could choose whether to "Snap to items" or not. And the selection mode would work mostly like the normal mouse hover mode, it would snap either to grid or, if "Snap to items" was selected, to each item's snap points - pad centers, footprint centers, graphic line's either end, user origin etc.

That way everything which was possible earlier would be possible now, easily, without extra target item (which feels like an ugly workaround).

[eelik (eelik)]

I'm sorry if this feels like a horse beaten to death already, but I now returned to this with a new case where I need it and with "new eyes".

I'm still missing the ability to use the user origin or maybe grid origin as the reference point. Drawing an item just to be able to move another item and then deleting it feels as clumsy as ever. However, I noticed that it would very naturally belong to "Position Relative To" dialog. If just instead of only the Reference item there were radio buttons: reference item, user origin, grid origin and maybe some other relevant item. Or two radio buttons, "reference item" and "special point". Under the latter there would be combobox which would have list of special points. It wouldn't be much more complicated than it's now (in the latest development code) IMO.

The attached video show a real world example of a board outline according to a technical drawing where it would be used.

[eelik (eelik)]

By the way, now when there's the new snapping point feature, selecting an *item* isn't necessarily the best idea. Why not select a snapping point? That way e.g. either end of a line could be selected. Now it's very difficult to even tell which end is the line's "location".

Now it also occurred to me that different origins could be added to snapping points. If they were and snapping points could be selected for the reference, it would solve the whole problem. But I'll report another wish for that.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

What version of kicad are you using.

[eelik (eelik)]

Sorry again... but it's the latest development code again. It was up-to-date and still is while writing this.

Application: kicad
Version: (6.0.0-rc1-dev-1178-g62e2fe8bb-dirty), debug build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.3
Platform: Linux 4.13.0-46-generic x86_64, 64 bit, Little endian, wxGTK
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.3 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8) GTK+ 2.24
    Boost: 1.62.0
    Compiler: GCC 7.2.0 with C++ ABI 1011

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

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

Fixed in revision 86273e86b98a19cc5043e63fedcab255be0c1751
https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/patch/?id=86273e86b98a19cc5043e63fedcab255be0c1751