# Grab areas in board editor issues
**URL:** https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473
**Category:** Help
**Created:** [May 21, 2022, 10:39pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473 "2022-05-21T22:39:13Z")
**Posts on this page:** 10
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@parenthetical](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/parenthetical)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2022, 10:39pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/1 "2022-05-21T22:39:13Z")
I am having trouble with grab areas in footprints, sometimes they work and sometimes not.
some of the packages/footprints I have made are grabbale, some not and some seem to work sometimes but not always. I’ve checked the library footprints many times and they usually seem fine. ie they relevant polygon has grab area checked.
So far I can’t see any pattern to it.
some questions to help me understand how they are supposed to work:
- should circular grab areas work?
- If there are overlapping grab areas can they ever cancel out?
- should an unfilled polygon that is part of the top plament layer be grabbable if the checkbox is set?
- does it make any difference if a grab area is filled or not?
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### Author:  [@parenthetical](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/parenthetical)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2022, 10:44pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/2 "2022-05-21T22:44:14Z")
there might be more problems with hidden grab areas, and circular ones.
rectangular grab areas in the placement layer seem more reliable. but i’m not 100% sure yet.
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### Author:  [@ubruhin](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/ubruhin)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2022, 11:19pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/3 "2022-05-21T23:19:38Z")
Yeah there are some issues indeed. To be honest, so far we try to avoid grab areas in footprints and simply grab them by their origin 🙈
But there are good news: I just did a refactoring a few days ago, which fixes at least some of these issues in the next release:
>
>
> Code refactoring like #969, but this time for footprint graphics items:
>
> \- Ref…actor \`FootprintGraphicsitem\` and \`FootprintPadGraphicsItem\` to support rendering of component previews and to move them from the \`core\` library to the \`editor\` library (see #67).
> \- Remove \`FootprintPreviewGraphicsItem\` and \`FootprintPadPreviewGraphicsItem\` since they are now replaced by \`FootprintGraphicsitem\` and \`FootprintPadGraphicsItem\`.
> \- Refactor \`BGI\_Footprint\` to avoid duplicated code for rendering - now it uses other, existing classes to do the rendering.
>
> See also #181
> [@parenthetical](#):
>
> should circular grab areas work?
> should an unfilled polygon that is part of the top plament layer be grabbable if the checkbox is set?
Yes, but these things might also require the refactoring until they work as intended.
> [@parenthetical](#):
>
> If there are overlapping grab areas can they ever cancel out?
> does it make any difference if a grab area is filled or not?
No.
Note that whether a device can be grabbed or not in the board editor also depends on the enabled layers. At least the “Top|Bottom References” needs to be enabled. Maybe also the layer of the polygon which is set as grab area, but I’m not 100% sure anymore.
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### Author:  [@parenthetical](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/parenthetical)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2022, 11:36pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/4 "2022-05-21T23:36:50Z")
thanks! maybe I should try the current master from github. How soon do you expect to make the next release?
Grabbing by origin can be tricky too - sometimes the mouse drops the footprint if I move it too fast. also sometimes there is a name on top of the origin.
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### Author:  [@ubruhin](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/ubruhin)
#### Post date: [May 21, 2022, 11:47pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/5 "2022-05-21T23:47:30Z")
> [@parenthetical](#):
>
> maybe I should try the current master from github.
The master should really not be used for any productive work since it uses an intermediate file format which will not be upgradable to any future release.
> [@parenthetical](#):
>
> How soon do you expect to make the next release?
There are no concrete plans, but probably it will take quite some time until the next release is ready.
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### Author:  [@parenthetical](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/parenthetical)
#### Post date: [May 22, 2022, 2:43pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/6 "2022-05-22T14:43:37Z")
Is there more info about this intermediate file format somewhere?
Is it a temporary thing until a new file format is finished?
for now I am making my grab areas work by making a polygon (not circle) grab area on the top placement layer with line thickness 0. that mostly seems to work.
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### Author:  [@ubruhin](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/ubruhin)
#### Post date: [May 23, 2022, 9:42pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/7 "2022-05-23T21:42:30Z")
> [@parenthetical](#):
>
> Is there more info about this intermediate file format somewhere?
>
> Is it a temporary thing until a new file format is finished?
Yes it is. See [here](https://developers.librepcb.org/df/d30/doc_developers.html#doc_developers_unstable_versions) and [here](https://developers.librepcb.org/da/dbc/doc_release_workflow.html).
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### Author:  [@parenthetical](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/parenthetical)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 12:30pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/8 "2025-02-25T12:30:10Z")
I’m bumping this thread because I’m still having trouble with grab areas nearly 3 years later.
Some footprints the grab area works and some it doesn’t. I usually make a grab area by setting the checkbox in an outline polygon in the top legend layer - but I have tried many other ways.
The footprints that work just work, and the ones that don’t don’t no matter if I change how the grab area is made.
many footprints have a name or pad on the origin which makes grabbing by origin impractical most of the time.
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### Author:  [@ubruhin](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/ubruhin)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 1:27pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/9 "2025-02-25T13:27:03Z")
Hmm it would be helpful to provide exact steps how to reproduce it, ideally including a project where we can reproduce it.
And just to be sure, you know that the Shift key can be used to cycle the selection through all objects under the cursor? In the board it happens often that there are multiple objects below the cursor when clicking, so the tool can’t know which one you want to select. By pressing Shift while clicking, you can choose the object you want to select.
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### Author:  [@parenthetical](https://librepcb.discourse.group/u/parenthetical)
#### Post date: [February 25, 2025, 3:39pm UTC](https://librepcb.discourse.group/t/grab-areas-in-board-editor-issues/473/10 "2025-02-25T15:39:19Z")
If I work out how to reproduce it simply I will let you know.
Also if I can reproduce it maybe I can avoid it. So far I have no idea why it happens.
I will try making some new test footprints and see how they come out.