Hi folks,
while still being in the discussion about the layer based
constraints, I would like to propose some other small
feature. I will create that for sure, because I will need it
eventually, but I’m not sure if it makes sense to give it
back to the project, and if, how to implement it so that it
“fits” into the project. (even less than the layer based
constraints
)
First: The motivation:
The other day, I did a manual “pick and place” on a PCB,
after putting the solder paste via a stencil. To do it more
efficiently, I placed the components type by type. Means: I
pickt the bag containing the 34 10k-resistors, looked, where
they are, placed them on the board, and took the next bag
out of the box.
Kicad helped me finding the places for the components.
But it turned out not to be so easy. I searched for R12 an
saw a screen with R12 in the center – but I had no clue
where it was. Then are there these banks of 20 times a 10k
resistor. In one row. So, I don’t need to search for each
and every one. But somewhere, there was another 10k
resistor. So how to find it? Search as long as you found the
one that is not in this bank you already knew.
To finally come to the point: What I missed was a feature
that marked all 10k resistors at a time. Very simple,
actually. “pleas highlight all components with the value
“10k”. Of course, if there are 0603 types of 10k resistors
and 1206 types of 10k resistors, both types would show up.
But normally I think this is no big deal. These I just have
to distinguish from each other – after all, they’re
different in size.
So, a short thing explained complicated. Really nothing
more than “highlight all components with value xxx (where
xxx could, preferably include wildcards)
What do you think? Does it make sense? As I said, I
urgently need it, so I will implement it.. But is it worth
an additional menu entry in the release branch?
