Metric Grid Options in schematic diagrams
Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
KiCad |
Won't Fix
|
Wishlist
|
Unassigned |
Bug Description
If one switches pcbnew or eeschema to metric, the grid size options are equivalent in size to user-friendly imperial options (such as 25 thousandths of an inch). The result is the list of grid sizes in metric is user-unfriendly (25 thousandths of an inch becomes 0.635mm, for example). This is particularly problematic in pcbnew, as this works with real engineering components. It should be possible to have user-friendly metric grid options, such as 1mm, 0.5mm, 0.1mm. Metric is the measurement system of choice for engineers in all but one advanced country, so kicad needs to make proper use of it.
If one makes this step, clearly a simple imperial/metric switch is inadequate, as sometimes one might want to switch between user-friendly imperial, and user-friendly metric, and sometimes one will want to keep the grid size but just have pcbnew/eeschema display it in alternative units. There are many ways to solve that, but perhaps the simplest is to replace the current two buttons with four - one pair for switching units ('metric units/imperial units'), and one for switching grids ('metric grids/imperial grids'). Alternatively one of the two existing buttons could be 'metric units/imperial units', and the other could be 'metric grids/imperial grids'.
summary: |
- Metric Grid Options + Metric Grid Options in schematic diagrams |
Logged In: NO
There is more and more components with "metric" dimensions, like connectors with 2,5 mm pitch and some SMT IC. It's very useful to have a metric grid.
And in the schematic there is simply no reason to keep that stone-age units.