I have many components located on my PCB underneath an overlying LCD display which is the same size as the entire PCB. When I try and select more than one of them for relocation etc by holding down the mouse button and drawing a rectangle around them, the selection tool try's to draw a single line.
Is there any way to stop the overlying component (in this case the LCD) from always being selected and preventing the use of the multi selection function?

This problem is also some what frustrating when just trying to select any item below the overlying component as you require multiple mouse clicks every time you want to select something.

If anyone has some tips they would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers,
Andy

Hi Andy,

Just right click on the components on top that you do not want to move and select "lock selected". Then you can drag the box around what you want and the locked components will not move.

Cheers

Thanks MDman but the component on top is locked. Its not an issue with the top component moving its not being able to do a multiple select under the top component or easily select components under the top component.

Normally this wouldn't be an issue but with my current project having an LCD completely covering the entire top side of the board just about every other component is under the LCD.

Use Ctrl+ left click to select multiple components.

Unfortunately, there is no way to prevent selecting large component if you want to select components underneath. We will consider how to improve software to avoid that problem.

Alex the Ctrl + Left click only allows you to individual select multiple items and not select multiple items at once. If it was one or two items then it probably wouldn't be so much of a problem but I have around 100 vias for thermal transfer between copper pours and individually selecting each of them is almost imposable. As a work around I have now just place marked the overlying LCD with some pads and moved the whole component out of the way and I will place it back into position as a final task.

If the next version has a way around this problem I would love to hear about it. This is my first project with Diptrace (having moved over from another package) and apart from this issue I'm otherwise quite impressed with its easy of use and flexibility.

Cheers,
Andy

Perhaps a good way to do this would be to add a checkbox in componant properties that, when checked prevents that componant from being selected. - I have the same problem when trying to manipulate tracks that are completley underneath a componant.

Just a thought.

Peter

Yes something like a check box would be ideal.