Luke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
My gripes/suggestions/feedback as a #KiCad newb so that I don't forget to turn them into either feature/issue reports or PRs. A thread.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
Application-wide:
- I often have trouble seeing the grid ticks. I have not found a setting to adjust their color/contrast.
- The difference between LTR and RTL drag-select wasn't very discoverable. Long after I read it in the manual, I noticed that the cursor changes depending on which way. But I guess that wasn't very noticeable. More visual cues I guess, maybe different highlight color?
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
I often want two instances of the footprint editor or symbol editor side-by-side, and having to open a while other KiCad instance is clunky.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025

Big fan of the schematic and symbol editors, very few notes (beside the app-wide ones)

It's be nice if I could have dragging a symbol change parallel "S" wires to parallel "Z" wires without getting them all jumbled.

Sometimes the symbol editor wants to make me drag things a multiple of the grid instead of to the grid. Like if the grid is 0.5mm and something is at 0.51mm I can drag it to 0.01mm or 1.01mm but not 0mm or 1mm or 0.5mm.

Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025

PCB and footprint editors:

Biggest thing is plz stop segfaulting
And doing glitches that are probably the same root as segfaulting. Some complaints might actually be memory corruption bugs causing weird behavior, so...

Dragging multiple footprints isn't algorithmically any different than dragging 1 footprint with multiple pads. Plz make them behave the same.

I have an old thread about trace-moving behavior.

Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
In the PCB editor it's way too easy to accidentally get off-grid. Snap-to-things-other-than-grid is way too aggressive. I should be able to set how I want a component to align to the grid, and then have it snap that way when I drag it.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
Automatic DRC exceptions for trace width and clearance close to footprints where the DRC constraints cannot be met (eg USB differential-pair traces often need to be way thicker than the pads on the USB connector allow, you have to get them thin and close right at the connector).
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025

The footprint editor feels like a PITA, but I'm (mostly) not sure how I'd fix that.

The grid is mostly useless because often the mechanical reality of the part doesn't conform to a grid.

I want to be able to put in dimension constraints, like I did for mechanical parts in whatever CAD we used in middle-school shop class. (Related to the grid being useless?)

Have defaults that match the KLC.

Whether I use multiple lines or a polyline, I always feel like I made the wrong choice.

Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
(note: I've long considered "wizards" to be a UX anti-pattern) The wizards should be regular tools. Instead of a wizard to initialize a footprint with a row of pads with fixed pitch, there should just be a tool for aligning pads and adjusting their pitch.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 21, 2025
Oh, back to the schematic editor: It's basically impossible to click on a net-tie; I always have to do a RTL drag to select it.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 22, 2025
I didn't notice this with 9.0.3, but with 9.0.4 sometimes my ERC exceptions randomly go away? (And then I just don't stage those few lines in *.kicad_pro changing, and then `git reset` the *.kicad_pro file after I commit)
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 22, 2025

Oh, and I know there's already an open ticket about "you should be able to have footprint libraries as a single file, and symbol libraries as a folder", but +1 to that, symbol libraries as a folder would be great.

(Also, the ".pretty" directory-suffix for footprint libraries is a weird name. ".kicad_fp_lib" would make much more sense.)

Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 22, 2025
In the schematic editor, if I changed text alignment via the "Properties" sidebar, it often does not-what-I-clicked.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 25, 2025
It'd be nice if the #KiCad schematic editor supported 'U' to select the rest of a wire, the way it does for traces in the PCB editor.
Show threadLuke T. ShumakerAug 28, 2025
There are lots of inconsistencies in the #KiCad standard symbol and footprint libraries, including KLC violations, including violations that `check_{symbol,footprint}.py` catch. This isn't a criticism of the library maintainers, it's just a note of a good place to start contributing.
Show threadLuke T. Shumaker
The inconsistencies of various RJ45/Ethernet jacks in the symbol library are particularly frustrating to me right now.
Aug 28, 2025 at 3:26pmWeb