Kicad plugin to delete all tracks

DIY STUFF
1

I’ve been testing out the kicad_freerouting-plugin and found my self constantly clearing the tracks, re-filling the ground fills then running the auto route as I adjusted placing things.

Whilst this isn’t hard it’s 4 clicks and a key press.

So I dusted off my complete lack of talent for python and wrote a plugin that does it in a single click: GitHub - themaninthesuitcase/kicad_nuke_tracks_plugin

Basically push the mushroom cloud button and and track that you didn’t lock goes away. Then it refills the ground planes.

If you have regrets or did it by mistake, a single undo puts it back to how it was.

Also useful when you’re trying to run tracks by hand and want to just start again, which I also do a lot.

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2

Alternatively one could use the selection filter to only select tracks, then press control+a and delete on the keyboard. I think there might also be a way of assigning a keyboard shortcut to a selection profile to speed this process up.

3

correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t this already in there?

edit > global deletions

4

Yes, but its edit > global deletions > select Tracks >press OK THEN press B

Or now I push a button. I was doing it enough for that to be annoying.

5

edit > global deletions > tracks & vias, OK, then confirm; that’s the four clicks and a keypress (or five clicks).

Two clicks (uncheck All items, check Tracks) and two keypresses. A third click if you want to delete vias too. (Which apparently the plugin does not do.) And afterwards another click to restore the selection filter to all items.

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6

Not sure what you mean? I’ve not heard of selection filters.

Select all + delete will keep not-locked stuff but that means I’d also delete anything that’s not locked which is very rarely what I’d want to do.

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7

Lower right of screen in KiCad version 6.

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8

I kept looking after I posted it and just saw it as the email of your post arrived. Never noticed those before!

Might be handy, suppose people must find them handy enough to dedicate valuable screen space to it.

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9

I guess that makes sense! I’m anyway hoping for a marco/workflow type for feature in KiCad, where common tasks can be put under a hot key.

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10

I do, lots of times. For instance, hand routing and I decide I want to redo some area of the board, not the whole thing: Uncheck All items, check tracks and vias, drag select the region, hit delete, tracks are gone in that area.

Stuff like that.

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11

I just noticed that the rats nest was going missing on nuke, but a B brought it back.

I’ve just found a fix for this, so I have updated the plugin.

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12

are there any good you tube vids on using Kicad ? a complete beginner here . I have a couple simple things I would like to do , so I can have pcb’s made .

13

I started with this series, I can imagine better but it was good enough. Started watching one evening and by about 3 am I was submitting an order for a (stupid simple tiny) PCB. But it’s for KiCad version 5 and we’re now on version 6, so that might be an issue.

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