Dear Ruth, your feedback is really useful. Especially because it focuses on inconsistencies across different tools. I would like to propose to you to: 1) use the list of problems you made to present a list of solutions where the problem is quickly mentioned. In this way others on this mailing list can comment. 2) work on fixing these problems. I can help you there.
let me know if you could be interested in putting the time. cheers Fabrizio On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 10:34 PM, Ruth Ivimey-Cook <r...@ivimey.org> wrote: > Fabrizio, > > Thanks for your encouragement. May I return it in saying I have > appreciated your existing efforts to improve things :-) I am currently > using a nightly kicad: 2017-04-07 70c961f on Mac: apologies if I'm treading > old ground on some things but the Mac build dropped out for a while. > PcbNew: > > 1. The "Remove" I mentioned is in the OpenGL context menu in pcbnew > between Flip and Move exactly. IMO should be "Delete". > > 2. The hidden item: I was looking for the 'update all filled zones' > command, to renew them all following some component moves. I eventually > found that click on edge of the zone the Zones submenu has Fill All and > Unfill All, which seem to do the trick though I don't know whether that is > really correct. > > 3. While looking at the Zones menu it has the text 'merge zones', which > seems interesting, but then the items present appear to be about adding > more zones (duplicate, add) rather than merge... Was there a merge (union) > zone somewhere? > > 4. I also spent ages looking for the setting to change the clearance > between tracks and zones; for some reason I did not expect it to be in the > zones settings, but in the track settings (I thought Clearance in the Zone > Properties was about clearance to edge-of-board et al). In the same area, > it is not clear to me what 'Antipad clearance' means... > > 5. The "Exchange footprints" context menu opens the "Change Footprint" > dialog. > > 6. On the change footprint dialog, you have an Apply and Cancel button; as > expected Apply leaves the dialog open, but it is semi-modal; you cannot > select an alternate component to change, and it seems unlikely that having > changed once you expect to need to change it again immediately after. Can > we change "Apply" to a dismissing "OK" button? > > 7. The "Select Layer Pair" menu item opens the "Select Copper Layer Pair" > dialog. > > 8. Not quite in the same vein, but could the Select Copper Layer Pair be > embedded in the main menu, as the normal Layers panel is? I would prefer it > was always open at the side. > CvPcb: > > As a new user, I found "CvPcb" to be a very confusing name and it took a > long time to understand how it fitted in the workflow -- aided mostly by > forum posts. I would suggest a name change to "Footprint association > editor" or similar. > > 1. The 'settings' wheel on the toolbar has a tooltip "Edit footprint > library table" while the equivalent menu item has "Configure Libraries" and > the dialog itself it "PCB Library Tables". Two different icons are used. > > 2. View selected footprint is not on the menu, and could be, as could > perform automatic... and delete all... actions. > > 3. Menu item "Edit footprint association file" could perhaps be added as a > toolbar item, and/or reworked: does it not make sense to "load" or "save" > such files? Could there be text or a link to help describing what "equ" > files are? > Footprint Editor: > > This is of course very similar in some ways to Pcbnew, so why are the > tools available so different? > > 1. Both interfaces have an anchor/origin tool but use different > terminology and different icons for it. > > 2. Maybe there are good internal reasons but I see no user reason not to > include the dimension and filled zone tools for footprints. > > 3. Both interfaces have line/polygon tools but use different icons. > > 4. It would be great to be able to import one footprint into another using > the footprint tool, even if it was a copy not link operation. > > 5. The Show/hide layers manager option is missing in the FP editor. > > 6. FP editor "Show edges sketch" and "Show Text sketch" don't appear to do > anything for me. The name would suggest though that the 'Show pads in > outline mode' (etc) actions / terminology should be preferred. > > Finally the toolbar containing the grid, zoom controls on the FP editor is > shorter than the equivalent in pcbnew. > Parts library editor: > > 1. The tooltip for browsing the library uses the text "Library Browser - > Browse Components" while the equivalent for Footprint uses the (clearer, In > My Opinion) "Open footprint viewer". > > 2. The tooltips for selecting the current library have "Select active > library" or "Select working library". I would prefer "working" but would > prefer consistency more! > > 3. The Save option uses tooltips "Save footprint in active library" and > "Save current library to disk", which confuses me. It may be that different > things are happening underneath, but the user doesn't (shouldn't need to... > ) know. > > 4. "Delete component from current library" -- neither "active" nor > "working"... > > > ... > > I think that's enough for the moment (?!!), and I hope this is useful. > > Regards, > Ruth > > > On 16/06/2017 16:51, Fabrizio Tappero wrote: > > Hi Ruth, > thanks for your feedack. I put quite some energy in trying to fix UI > problems. I just need a little bit more time... ;-) > > It would be great if your could provide clear suggestions about those > hidden functionalities. > > cheers > Fabrizio > > On Fri, Jun 16, 2017 at 4:27 PM, <r...@ivimey.org> wrote: > >> >> One of my earliest impressions of KiCad as a new user was confusion over >> UI inconsistency: terminology, menu layouts, and shortcuts in particular. >> For common actions there should be a common trigger (key, click) with a >> common indication (icon, tooltip words etc). As an example I noticed again >> yesterday in pcbnew, mostly you 'delete' an element, except when you >> 'remove' it! >> >> Personally, I find Command-D very handy as a duplicate action; I would be >> happy to see that used whenever it made sense. However, the best option >> would be to build in a keymap editor (surely there are components for >> this!) so we don't need a one-size-fits-all solution. >> >> While on the topic, it would be really good to include more actions on >> the main menu: there are many things hidden in context menus that don't >> need to be. >> > >
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