Moving components with connections intact

[tkamiya]

I have a design all completed with KiCad version 5.1.6-1.

Now, I need to move some components and shrink the size of board.  How do I move components with connections intact?  I can do MOVE but then only the foot print selected moves.  Connections stay in place.  Of course I googled.  I found few people complaining about this and apparently, this is a bug at one point.  I found no evidence of someone actually fixing it.  Some say try traditional mode.  This didn't work.  (just the foot print moved)

Seems odd that this isn't possible....  Am I missing anything?

[ataradov]

This is the most annoying thing about KiCad and I can't figure that out either. I see people refer to the G command for Drag, but it does not seem to do anything differently than move for me.

[greenpossum]

Not until v6.

[tkamiya]

Do you have any ideas on when it'll be out?

[ataradov]

Looks like the plan is early next year.

And nightly builds should be available now. But they changed the file formats, so keep that in mind.

[tkamiya]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

[delfinom]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

Old versions will open in nightlies and V6 just fine. And nightlies try to keep opening older versions of nightlies. The new version will just never save old versions.

If there's any issues in that flow, a quick complaint on the issue tracker usually gets us to fix it quick.

[S. Petrukhin]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

While waiting for the new version, try the free online service https://easyeda.com/editor there you can open KiCAD files and move the components along with the connections. 

[delfinom]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

While waiting for the new version, try the free online service https://easyeda.com/editor there you can open KiCAD files and move the components along with the connections. 

And give away your designs to a company in China.

[S. Petrukhin]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

While waiting for the new version, try the free online service https://easyeda.com/editor there you can open KiCAD files and move the components along with the connections. 

And give away your designs to a company in China.

Do you develop secret schemes or invent something very unique, creative, worthy of copyright, etc.? what can be lost in declassifying your schemes? It seems to me that there are few schemes in the modern world that have a secret and cannot be repeated. The main value is SOFTWARE and marketing.

[delfinom]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

While waiting for the new version, try the free online service https://easyeda.com/editor there you can open KiCAD files and move the components along with the connections. 

And give away your designs to a company in China.

Do you develop secret schemes or invent something very unique, creative, worthy of copyright, etc.? what can be lost in declassifying your schemes? It seems to me that there are few schemes in the modern world that have a secret and cannot be repeated. The main value is SOFTWARE and marketing.

It's 100% about setting up barriers. Even software can be reverse engineered. The easier you make it however, the less time you have to sell before the clones show up on aliexpress And marketing cannot overcome the power of the price tag attached, unless you are Apple.

It depends on what you are doing however, maybe you don't care so do as you please

[methods]

In eagle we always did this with third-party plugins, IIRC.  I remember running all sorts of scripts to panalize.

I'm currently using whatever the most recent version of KiCad is, and I can duplicate the entire blocks of copper without issue.

The primary feature I have found to be missing is the ability to copy and paste artwork from one file to another.  I'm sure it could be done with a plug-in, and I have seen some advertising it.

...  If memory serves eagle handles it by systematically renaming everything to make sure there's no duplicates.

...  Anyhow, if I understand the question as being related to moving laid copper from one spot to another...  I can do that just fine.

-methods

[ataradov]

Anyhow, if I understand the question as being related to moving laid copper from one spot to another...  I can do that just fine.

No, the question is about moving a single component and having all the attached tracks move with it instead of staying in place.

[james_s]

Well, I don't have much yet, so that's not a problem.  I wonder if they'll have a file conversion or import function from older versions?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.  Thanks both.

While waiting for the new version, try the free online service https://easyeda.com/editor there you can open KiCAD files and move the components along with the connections. 

And give away your designs to a company in China.

It's something to be aware of, although most of my own designs I give away for free anyway. The other stuff is all just random hobby projects that nobody else would want. If you're designing some complex hot new commercial project then it's probably not a good idea to spread it around, but if it's a simple board, protecting the PCB layout is a pretty low barrier. That part is trivial to copy just by looking at it.