Track/Via place/width change shorcut experience

[Hildo Guillardi Júnior]

May be my opinion, I think this will improve the UX.

In Pcbnew, nowdays, we have this behavior:
"x" start trace place;
<Shift>+<Ctrl>+"v" start the place via tool;
"w" increase the trace width;
<Ctrl>+"w" decrease the trace width;
"'" increase the via size;
"\" descrease the via size.

There are a lot of "not grouped" shortcut. It is difficult for user to remember. My propose is the width/size change shorcut just be accessibly in the on tool and group the shortcut in group:

To trace tool
"w" start the trace place tool, if other tool is actived;
"w" if the trace place already activated, increase it width
<Shift> + "w" if the trace place already activated, decrease it width. If not actived it does nothing.

To via tool
"x" start the via place, if other tool is actived;
"x" if the trace place already activated, increase it size
<Shift> + "x" if the trace place already activated, decrease it size. If not actived it does nothing.

Also proposing not use <Shift>+<Ctrl>+v to place via. I could propose use just "v" to active this tool but, this shortcut is already used for change layer view.

This way of group and access the characteristic/parameter change of each tool (the trace and via tool) could be expended to all tool that have this kind of behavior. Making me, user to easy remember the shortcuts.

Application: pcbnew
Version: 5.1.0-unknown-a7270f8~82~ubuntu16.04.1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.2
    libcurl/7.47.0 OpenSSL/1.0.2g zlib/1.2.8 libidn/1.32 librtmp/2.3
Platform: Linux 4.15.0-46-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

[Michael Kavanagh (michaelkavanagh)]

You can assign your own hotkeys to suit you.
The topic of "stringed keyboard shortcuts" has already been suggested here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1616154
Whilst they probably aren't ideal, changing the default hotkeys on-mass would probably cause much upset in the existing user base.

[Hildo Guillardi Júnior (hildogjr)]

This behavior that I propose is not allowed due use the same key to two functions.

Thanks to link to the old discussion.

I am a favor of change the shortcuts. But this have to be made:
1) Keeping the actual;
2) Setting the second propose (the changes) on the configurations.

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

KiCad bug tracker has moved to Gitlab. This report is now available here: https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/3409