Comment 12 for bug 593944

For reference, if someone is reading this but hasn't read the roadmap for 6.0, pin swapping and gate swapping is there: http://docs.kicad-pcb.org/doxygen/v6_road_map.html.

Referring to comment #1 - could pin swapping at least for non-polarized two-pin components be completely automatic? Because direction doesn't matter at least two things could be automatic, namely ratsnest and possibility to connect tracks.

The ratsnest could find the nearest possible pad.

Connecting a track could be possible to each of the possible pads if they are both free. After one pad is connected the connection would be fixed and only the other pad would be available for the second net. But it should be possible to rotate a symmetric two-pin footprint 180 degrees and the connections would be automatically swapped, too.

There is good reason for this to be automatic. Positioning footprints in a new layout takes much time and rotating resistors and capacitors just to clean up the ratsnest is completely needless and time consuming step.

Also changing the positions of components in partial layout is needlessly difficult, often footprints have to be rotated even though logically there should be no need for that.

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I wonder if it would even be possible, when the new symbol and shcematic formats come, to have pins with no numbers so that the component would automatically be understood to be non-polarized and swappable.