From 76ce4ec535ee45e1dc9d940a5599a8e19f8dc3e4 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Seth Hillbrand <seth@kipro-pcb.com>
Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2025 09:10:10 -0700
Subject: [PATCH] Prevent pads from moving inappropriately

Free pads is a setting unless we are in the footprint editor and needs
to be respected by the alignmen tool

Fixes https://gitlab.com/kicad/code/kicad/-/issues/21626

(cherry picked from commit 1f1f8699e08f41367f2f93fe2a3af6b39bd4577c)
---
 pcbnew/tools/align_distribute_tool.cpp | 4 +++-
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/pcbnew/tools/align_distribute_tool.cpp b/pcbnew/tools/align_distribute_tool.cpp
index 1841b51f44..d11fdff1c6 100644
--- a/pcbnew/tools/align_distribute_tool.cpp
+++ b/pcbnew/tools/align_distribute_tool.cpp
@@ -150,6 +150,8 @@ size_t ALIGN_DISTRIBUTE_TOOL::GetSelections( std::vector<std::pair<BOARD_ITEM*,
     bool                  allPads = true;
     BOARD_ITEM_CONTAINER* currentParent = nullptr;
     bool                  differentParents = false;
+    bool                  allowFreePads = m_selectionTool->IsFootprintEditor()
+                                       || m_frame->GetPcbNewSettings()->m_AllowFreePads;
 
     for( EDA_ITEM* item : selection )
     {
@@ -192,7 +194,7 @@ size_t ALIGN_DISTRIBUTE_TOOL::GetSelections( std::vector<std::pair<BOARD_ITEM*,
 
         BOARD_ITEM* boardItem = static_cast<BOARD_ITEM*>( item );
 
-        if( allPads && differentParents )
+        if( boardItem->Type() == PCB_PAD_T && ( !allowFreePads || ( allPads && differentParents ) ) )
         {
             FOOTPRINT* parentFp = boardItem->GetParentFootprint();