KiCad

Auto-Cursor-Highlight

Asked by Dave Schecter

In some mechanical CAD systems, moving the mouse over an entity changes the colour of that entity which will be selected.

This "Might" be easier than "Selection Confirmation". I used to be able to "Fly" with KiCad, no more.

I know selecting the desired item has always been a problem with CAD. This has become almost expected in some systems.

For a working example, see it in (that otherwise annoying) MasterCam. I think I have also seen it in Cadkey, Rhino, Qcad), and others.

KiCad is "The Kool-est", this might add to that. Just my opinion, but others "might" like it. Thanks for listening,

Dave Schecter

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Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw) said : 		#1

Dave,

If memory serves me, this has been suggested before either on the user or developer mailing list. I agree with your assessment that this would be a nice feature. The current graphic context design would likely make this a lot of work. Until Kicad takes advantage of some of the newer graphics libraries, highlighting is probably not going to happen.

That being said, highlighting still doesn't solve the problem when multiple objects are located at the cursor position. Which one do you highlight? Traditional CAD applications use layers to solve this problem. By turning layers on and off, you eliminate the multiple object hit test problem. This solution has the same problem as the clarification context menu in that it requires extra mouse clicks to get you to the object you are trying to select.

There have been many discussions (complaints?) in the past about hit testing. One user has a certain expectation and another use has a completely different expectation. A more flexible solution may be to allow the user to set their own order of precedence so that when multiple objects are at the cursor, the user's preferences are used to determine which object to select. That way if you don't get the object you expected, it's your own fault.

Hit testing is a complicated problem to solve. Have you ever seen someone try select a surface or an object in a complex 3D model in SolidWorks? It's comforting to know that the folks who charge $5K to $10K for their software haven't come up with a good solution to this problem either.

Wayne

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Dave Schecter (ozone-g) said : 		#2

Wayne,

Thanks for a good answer. If the graphics libraries ever allow it, I look forward to it. As for when there are still multiple objects at the cursor position, then either the way it is now, or the way it was. And preferences for which way.

It "seems" that this is "the way it was", but it could be just chance: If multiple objects at the cursor position, it picked one, if I escaped and clicked again, it picked another, etc ("maybe"in a certain order). For me, yes, this is mouse clicks, but preferable to clicks "and" moves "and" more menus appearing. A preference to select this or the current way, would be great.

And I could probably use a finer grid and be very careful where I click.

Thanks,
Dave

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Dave Schecter (ozone-g) said : 		#3

I said:
  "And I could probably use a finer grid and be very careful where I click."

A key to (one-time) disable grid could enable even finer selection.

Dave

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Dave Schecter (ozone-g) said : 		#4

Looks like I need to leave another comment for the "Problem Solved" button to work.

Using a finer grid so I can click on areas with fewer entities does help a lot.

I have to be more careful with a finer grid, but slowing down a little is probably good.

Thanks,
Dave