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# UI improvements
The list below gathers comments regarding KiCad's UI possible
improvements,
mostly based on [UI and usability
ehnancement](https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg19716.html)
message from Attila Kinali.
## General
I also incorporated the comments I got from my friend Andrew Bradford.
These are marked with (bradfa).
All comments are based on kicad from bzr from about a month ago
(2015-08-10 r6080).
### Consistency
Of the general rules of UI design, the most important one is
consistency,
both internal and external. Consistency helps the user to develop a
mental
model on how the application is supposed to work. This help in not
needing
to remember exactly how to do X, but being able to derive the key
presses,
mouse movement, etc on the spot. External consistency is a behaviour
similar
to other applications, internal consistency behaviour that is similar
within
the application itself.
One example where Kicad fails with internal consistency are the symbol
and
component editors compared to the schematic and layout entry
respectively.
Even though they do very similar things, they work differently.
An example where Kicad fails with external consistency is the use of
the
mouse wheel. While all EDA, CAD and simple drawing applications I've
used
in the past have the following mapping:
wheel -\> up/down
shift-wheel -\> left/right
ctrl-wheel -\> zoom
Kicad has the following mapping:
wheel -\> zoom
shift-wheel -\> up/down
ctrl-wheel -\> left/right
And this is probably my biggest gripe with Kicad. Even after several
weeks
of using Kicad, I still use the wrong one in the first try. If
possible,
I would advise to change this before the release, as the release will
attract a lot of people who have never used Kicad before and they will
for sure stumble over this as I have. Especially as this cannot be
changed
in any of the preferences menus.
### State clarity
The second most important rule of UI is to make things explicit. Do
not
hide the state a certain tool is in, but show it somewhere. For
example,
the push-and-shove router only works with the OpenGL canvas. This is
highly
non-obvious. I had to look at Tomasz introduction video twice to spot
the
hint that I have to change the canvas. Also, the differen canvas
behave
differently. This is *not* a good idea. If there is need to have
multiple
canvas types, then make them behave exactly the same, or at least as
far
as possible and warn the user when he is trying to do something that
the
current canvas type does not support. But better still: remove all
canvas
types but one.
In a similar vein, why the heck is dragging behaviour of tracks hidden
in
the track settings context menue? It took me half a day to figure out
why
dragging tracks moved the whole track element instead of drag the
track
elastically. Even though I guessed it was some setting somewhere, I
could
not find it in any preferences menu. A good way to at least alleviate
this issue is to put all persistent settings into one big
(tool-)global
preferences dialog. If you have a look at commercial EDA/CAD tools,
they
have humongous preferences dialogs, with hundreds if not thousands of
settings. Yes, this is cumbersome. But at least you have a chance to
find
a setting there, even if it means to check each sub-dialog.
The place where Kicad has done this right are the lists of key
shortcuts.
Heck, I love this\! I wish more tools had an accessible list like
this,
that is only two mouse clicks away\!
The third rule most important rule (in an CAD like application) is the
placement of keys and symbols. The farther they are apart the more
mouse
and hand movement is necesssary to use them. E.g. a wire is placed
pressing
W, but to end it, one has to press K. While this would be ok if one
had
both hands on the keyboard, but for this task the right hand rests on
the
mouse and draws the wire. So one has to either lift the right hand
from
the mouse or move the left hand over to the right half of the
keyboard.
While the first is a natural movement, but has a long distance, the
second
one is an "un-natural" movement and forces one to look on the keyboard
to
find the right key. Yes, one can change the key settings. But honestly,
how
many people will do this? Most, especially casual users, will just
live
with the default settings (and even for "professional" users it is
usually
a good idea to stick with the defaults, as it helps when working in
different
environments).
Ok, now for the real part:
General:
- (bradfa) Make a wizard for the creation of a project, which allows
to set
\- Whether the default libraries should be used or not
\- Paper size
<!-- end list -->
- (bradfa, me) Create a way to gracefully handle changes of
schematic
symbols and footprints. Currently, they get silently replaced, which
can
(and often does) lead to problems. Either cache the
symbols/footprints
in the project or versionize them such that changes can be caught.
<!-- end list -->
- The mouse wheel and navigation (as mentioned above).
Make it consistent with other EDA, CAD and drawing applications:
wheel -\> up/down, shift-wheel -\> left/right, ctrl-wheel -\> zoom
<!-- end list -->
- (bradfa) Allow for copy/paste and a move ability across pages. This
would
be hard given the way the selection and copy/cut operations work
with the
drag a box around things workflow. Not sure what the right way to
solve
it is, but it should be solved.
<!-- end list -->
- Fix the drawing issues (ghost lines etc). Yes, I know, this is most
likely
a bug in wx. But it is annoying as hell. So if wx needs to be fixed,
then
fix wx.
<!-- end list -->
- Get rid of plot vs print. Use one that does the right thing
## Eeschema
### Schematic entry
- Print by default in color. We are in the year 2015. Most people have
color
printers these days. If you think it should configurable, then make
a config
option somewhere, that is *global* and does not revert to the other
thing
when you use a different path for printing.
<!-- end list -->
- Make powersymbols global netlabels that do not depend on being in
the right
library. Heck, this is the most cumbersome way to define power
symbols I have
ever seen\! For every new power rail I define, I need to create a
new power
symbol. And above all, it has to be in a library called "power",
which of
course is not documented. Additionally, this masks power symbols
with the
same name. The "right" way to do it, would be have specially marked
symbols,
(have a property POWERSYMBOL) that have a name field which doubles
as the
net label. This way, one can create one symbol of the right form,
set it
in the schematic, and change its label according to the needs.
<!-- end list -->
- Create a junction automatically, when a wire is passing over a
pin.
This is usefull when, e.g. placing a dozen blocking C's. Then you
just
pass with the wire once over all, instead of having to stop at each
C.
Actually better still: When a pin or a wire ends on a wire, connect
them,
even if there is no junction.
<!-- end list -->
- When creating/placing netlabels: remember the last created label.
It is normal to set a label at multiple places at once, and also
to have multiple labels that are named similarly.
As advanced feature: if the label ends in a number, automatically
increment
the number.
<!-- end list -->
- (bradfa) Allow for non-hierarchical multi-sheet schematics.
Especially for
big parts or boards where there are many big parts (think 1000 pin
BGA
and 64 bit wide DDR3 and other "modern computer things") it's
simply
easier and more elegant looking to organize a common set of parts
across
more than one non-hierarchical sheet. Being forced to use
hierarchy
means either I'm going to have to use a bigger sheet (which I
can't
print, most people can't print on A3 size paper, let alone larger)
or I
have to break my single unit of schematic up into yet another
hierachy,
which for things like DDR, especially in something like a 64 bit
wide of
x8 chips, is hard to fit onto one page.
### Schematic Symbol editor
- Explicitly make it clear which symbol is being edited. The name
should be
placed somewhere prominently. Either in the title bar or in a corner
of the
window.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow for multiple symbol editor windows to be open, for easy
copy\&paste.
<!-- end list -->
- Add a pane with a view of the library. This would allow for faster
selection
of the symbol one wants to edit/view.
<!-- end list -->
- Get rid of the double-confirm needed to save a changed symbol (why
do I need
to save the changes of the symbol and then again save the changes of
the
library?)
## Pcbnew
### Layout editor
- I do not really like the idea of having the board on a sheet, though
i
can understand the reasoning. IMHO it comes from the old pen and
pencil
times, when people drew on pre-made sheets of paper. Today, i don't
really
see a point here. Yes, having some text describing the layout
somewhere
(the sheet header) is nice, but why place the frame as well?
<!-- end list -->
- Start with a board creation wizard. In 99% of the cases people will
start
with a rectangular PCB of a predetermined size. A wizard would allow
for
a quick and easy creation of the board shape without the need to
place
a number of lines precisely. The wizard should als create an
automatic
keep out line around the PCB (there is usally a 0.5mm to 1mm
keepout
at the board edges for production reasons. For PCB separation by
scoring
this goes up to 2-3mm).
To make be able to call this wizard at a later stage (or not cal it
at all)
would be also a good idea.
<!-- end list -->
- Make board edges a polygon line. I.e. disallow the breaking up of
the closed
shape by moving a single line. Breaking of a polygon should be
explicit,
when the user demands it, i.e. to insert another line shape. And
those should
"snap" automatically into the polygon again and be not be broken
until
requested.
<!-- end list -->
- All components should be placed next to each other, sorted by sheet
they
are on. Not ontop of each other.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow placing explicitly a single via. And do not remove the
netlabel of a
via if it's not connected to any track. The reason for this is
simple: after
a layout is finished, I hunt for places where the ground (or power
plane)
connectivity is not good over different layers (think long parallel
tracks
on the bottom layer that carry high frequency signals, the ground
between
the tracks becomes a long (but wide) wire itself. Adding a via every
now
and then connects the ground to the ground plane on another
layer.)
Currently the only way to do this is to place a track that starts at
some
GND pin and runs in a zig-zag course over the PCB.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow to place a track in the middle of nowhere. Reason is similar
as above.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow to set the net of a track/via explicitly. Not only while
drawing
the track/setting the via, but also afterwards.
<!-- end list -->
- Make all canvas feature complete and equivalent. (reason given
above)
IMHO make the OpenGL canvas the default one. It's the one with the
nicest
features. Also it does not screw up every time one draws a track.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow rotations in both directions. (probably R, shift-R). Make R
the one
that goes in clock-wise direction, which is the "natural" direction
for most
people.
<!-- end list -->
- The important key shortcuts are all over the keyboard, which means
the user has to constantly move his hands around (see above).
<!-- end list -->
- Switching of trace width is.. meh.. the default canvas allows only
to use
pre-defined values (which is nice in theory, but not when you have
to add
every allowable line width explicitly into the settings). The OpenGL
canvas
allows to set to a value. Which is IMHO nicer, but there should be
some
"remembering" of old used values that present themselv in a drop
down menu.
<!-- end list -->
- All dialogs for creating something (planes, etc) should remember
their
settings that have been previous used. Chances are high I want to
create
another instance with the same settings.
<!-- end list -->
- Give unconnected pins a "No Net" label instead of a random
netlabel.
The random netlabel is confusing. One does automatically want to
find
the other component/pin that connects to it.
<!-- end list -->
- Create an un-select key shortcut.
<!-- end list -->
- Zoming centers the window at the point where the mouse pointer was
pointing to. This sudden jump is very annoying. Instead the point
the mouse
pointer is pointing to should be kept fixed and the zoomed window
moved
accordingly.
<!-- end list -->
- When moving parts references, highlight the part it belongs to.
<!-- end list -->
- Make highlighting and masking levels configurable by sliders
(Altium does that in a very cool way)
<!-- end list -->
- Place a small scale at the lower right corner. It is often very hard
to
judge how large something is, when doing the layout. A ruler would
allow
to have a quick look, to verify that one is actually drawing
something
roughly 1mm in size and not 10mm in size.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow for different line thickness on non-copper planes.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow for arbitrary shapes (rectangles, circles, rings, polygones)
on
non-copper planes (e.g. for modifying the paste mask or solder mask)
<!-- end list -->
- Add a "undo" for tracks while drawing them. If I am drawing a
track
and realize I've passed a component on the wrong side and thus have
ended
up in the wrong spot, I want to be able to backtrack to the place I
went
wrong and continue from there. Currently, I either have to cancel
the track
and start from zero again, or place the track and delete the part
that is
wrong and start from there.
<!-- end list -->
- Have a toggle (key shortcut) between "show all layers" and "show
only active
layer". In complex boards with more then 8 layer (sometimes even
from 6 up)
the other layers start to confuse and I want to disable them. But
from time
to time i need to know where I am and need to quickly reenable them.
<!-- end list -->
- Enabling/disabling layers takes way too much time when area fills
are
involved. I have here a simple design of 10x8cm board, with few
components
(two dozen in total), but it already takes a second to
enable/disable
a single layer.
<!-- end list -->
- BUG: Two area fills with the same priority but different nets will
overlap,
when drawn over eachother. The right thing to do here is to draw the
area
fills in a specific order and to cut later ones off when they get
too close
to another fill. Of course, this will then need some form of
configuration
in which order the fills are drawn (could replace the priority).
<!-- end list -->
- Mouse drag behaviour "interactive" is what people would expect
today.
Please make it the default.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow the grid to be changed with a key command that makes the
grid
smaller/larger.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow the grid to be switched off completely.
<!-- end list -->
- Make pin snap-in radius configurable.
### Footprint editor
- Explicitly make it clear which symbol is being edited. The name
should be placed somewhere prominently. Either in the title bar or
in a corner of the window.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow for multiple symbol editor windows to be open, for easy
copy\&paste.
<!-- end list -->
- Add a pane with a view of the library. This would allow for faster
selection of the symbol one wants to edit/view.
<!-- end list -->
- Make measurements easy and intuitive. The current "press space and
watch the status line" is not\! This requires at least an explicit
command.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow the grid to be changed with a key command that makes the grid
smaller/larger.
<!-- end list -->
- Allow the grid to be switched off completely (especially important
for measuring things).
<!-- end list -->
- Create a "snap to nearest center/vertex" option (also important for
measurement)
## Other sources
- [Usability
test](https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg14676.html)
(Tim Hutt)
- [KiCad
Usability](https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg16147.html)
(David Perrenoud)
- [Possibly low-hanging fruit usability
improvement](https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg18764.html)
(Henner Zeller)
- [KiCad gripes
list](http://www.eevblog.com/forum/open-source-kicad-geda/kicad-gripes-list-post-gripes-here/)
(summarized
[here](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1runOkCoLX0lRAS_svmz9kO9Lydj9lR_2YHzMhu6pIQw/edit?usp=sharing))
- [Evaluation du logiciel de CAO électronique
KiCad](https://www.ohwr.org/project/timex3/wikis/Documents/FR-Evaluation-de-KiCad) (might be outdated)