Eeschema: Highlight enhancements

[Evan Shultz]

A couple, I think, related items make up one request so I'll put them together here. Let me know if I should file multiple reports.

1. Highlighting is restricted to single nets. I would like to highlight or have some other way to select an item, especially a symbol, that would cross-probe it. If I'm looking at the schematic being able to find and jump to the footprint in Pcbnew is super helpful. Highlighting symbols should go both ways and not just supporting symbol/footprint highlight from Pcbnew -> Eeschema.

2. Cross-probing doesn't work from Eeschema -> Pcbnew. I highlight a net in Eeschema there is no effect I can see in Pcbnew. I would expect cross-probing to support nets. I was afraid something is wrong with my setup because this seems like it should work, but selecting a zone or track in Pcbnew doesn't highlight anything in Eeschema so I'm guessing cross-probing of nets isn't supported and Highlight is the command that would trigger cross-probing.

3. If I'm in Highlight Net mode and I drag a box around multiple elements, like a symbol and multiple wires, they all get picked up and can be moved. Why would this behavior happen. Then if I press the Escape key to bail, they don't move back to their original location until I move the mouse. It seems odd to me.

4. Highlight exists only as an icon in the toolbar. If I'm way over at the left side of the screen a menu item or, even better, a RMB option when in Select Item mode would be nice for me.

5. Highlight is not persistent. Sometimes I may want to highlight multiple things. But now I can only highlight one net and then click in open space to dehighlight it. If this is implemented, Dehighlight will have to be a new command/icon.

Application: kicad
Version: (5.1.2)-1, release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.68.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.61.1
    Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

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

[Seth Hillbrand (sethh)]

Hi Evan-

Can you please split the reports so that we can track and fix them as they are separate issues.

[Michael Kavanagh (michaelkavanagh)]

As Seth said, please separate these into their own reports (this is why I am marking this as incomplete), but I think a few of these have already been addressed for 6.0 and are available in the nightlies.

1. You can now select symbols in Eeschema and they are automatically selected + zoom focused in Pcbnew (and vice versa).

2. This also works for me in master and in 5.1.2, but in 5.1.2 the cross probe tool has to be enabled in both Eeschema and Pcbnew for this to work. (Strangely Pcbnew to Eeschema doesn't seem to work in either version?).

3. Due to the change in Eeschema selection behaviour that came with the move to the modern toolset, this no longer happens.

4. This should be a separate report, I'd like this feature as well.

5. This should also be a separate report.

If you can, please give a nightly a try and see if some of your requests have already been implemented.

[Evan Shultz (evan-shultz)]

@Seth
@Michael

No problem! I have tried a recent nightly. And man, is it better than 5.1.

1. https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1841690
https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1841691

2. OK, then it was pilot error. Admittedly coupled with a poor UX. In 5.1.4 I can now cross-probe both ways but having to enter the Highlight net command in both tools is unpleasant. In the nightly posted below cross-probing and highlighting seems to work much more intuitively to me. Thanks for clarifying this behavior.

3. The new selection paradigm when highlighting in nightlies seems to have resolved this.

4. https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1841683
Applies to 5.1.4 and nightlies.

5. https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1841687
This bug is written for nightlies only since I wouldn't expect any changes in 5.1.x.

Application: Pcbnew
Version: (5.1.0-1584-gc85d1fa00), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.61.1 OpenSSL/1.1.1 (WinSSL) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.6 libidn2/2.0.5 libpsl/0.20.2 (+libidn2/2.0.5) nghttp2/1.34.0
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.68.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.61.1
    Compiler: GCC 8.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    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)]

Closing as invalid now the reports have been separated.