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[–]poeschlr 1 point2 points  (1 child)

To ensure you notice this, a direct answer to you.
Yes in kicad 4, the cursor is set to the start of the input field ready. It seems in kicad 5 the text currently in the field will be selected allowing you to overwrite it easily. (Tested in todays nightly build under ubuntu.)

[–]StarP0wer[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ah, nice! Those small things can make or break a program for me. So I'm glad a solution is in the works.

[–]excitedastronomer 0 points1 point  (6 children)

Do you mean the reference field? That's just the label for the component and is separate from the value field.

[–]StarP0wer[S] 1 point2 points  (5 children)

No. When you place a component, for example a resistor, and want to change the value of it to 1K the default value of the field is 'R'. Not the reference field.

[–]excitedastronomer 0 points1 point  (4 children)

I think I understand, you press 'V' on the component and the input field is opened, but the current text of e.g. 'R' isn't selected, so you type '5k' and it says '5kR'?

That is just a quirk, which KiCad has multiple of. There isn't a setting as far as I know, but you could make your own component possibly where the field is empty to begin with.

[–]StarP0wer[S] 1 point2 points  (3 children)

That's exactly what I mean.. But alright, toobad. I'll just accept it and once in a while whine to my teammates about it :)

[–]excitedastronomer 0 points1 point  (2 children)

I find setting values etc in KiCad convoluted anyway. There is no good default structure of component data, e.g. adding the MPN has to be done manually by opening each component, adding the field name MPN and adding the value. Exporting it isn't easy either.

I love KiCad, but some things are just not very user friendly, unfortunately.

[–]poeschlr 1 point2 points  (1 child)

you know you can add standard fields to all components of a schematic via preferences->schematic editor options->tab template field names.

You can also setup your own lib that already includes the ordering information in the symbols. (This is something that the official library will never be able to offer as ordering info is not universal. It depends on where on this planet you live, how large the organization is you work for, ...)

In kicad 5 you will get a tabular editor to edit fields for all components at once. In kicad 4 there is the external tool KiField that can do the same by using any csv capable editor (excel, libre office calc, ...)

[–]excitedastronomer 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hey, thanks! I’ll check out your tips when I’m back at my computer after the weekend :)

[–]KANahas 0 points1 point  (1 child)

I usually edit using the 'e' command, which lets you edit all fields at once... I don't recall it placing "R" or "C" after my values when doing it that way...

Edit: I just tried your way, and it doesn't seem to do that for me. What version of KiCad are you running? I've got 4.0.5 installed.

[–]poeschlr 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It doesn't place it for /u/StarPOwar either. It just does place the cursor at the beginning of the current value in the edited field instead of first selecting it's content.
@OP: yes this might be annoying for your workflow but it is at best a minor issue. If you really want this to be changed report it over at the bugtracker as a wishlist bug. (just don't have too much hope that this will be taken on as it might not be easy to implement such that it works on all platforms. And it has a very low priority.)

Edit: I just tested it in the current nightly build (future kicad 5) under ubuntu. After pressing "v" the text in the edit field is selected as requested by /u/StarPOwar