Bug ? footprints component values always displayed

alka · December 19, 2015, 12:26pm

Hello,
not sure if this is the right place to post.

Many footprints display the component value on the F.Fab layer (yellow color by default).
PCBNEW always displays the values, regardless of the F.Fab checkbox in the Layer right panel.
Remove the F.Fab layer from the project or change the layer of the component value makes no change : the value is always displayed.

The only workaround I found was to change the value visibility prooperty to “invisible” and then uncheck “hiddden text” in the renderer panel.
Issue is with kicad 4.0.0 and 4.0.1

ps: where is the changelog for 4.0.1 ?

Thanks
Al

novaktamas · December 19, 2015, 1:13pm

I think you should select the “render” tab on right “visibles” pane,
and untick the “text front”. The value objects are on F.fab layer in real, but handled seperately.

alka · December 19, 2015, 2:41pm

Thanks. That works but removes all the texts fom all layers. Too much

Footprint component values rendering seems to be managed differently than other text.
Actually, for component value in a footprint, the selected layer only impacts the color.

A text added on a footprint or added on the board is only displayed when the layer it is attached to is visible ( ticked in the right pane). As expected.

Can’t see a reason to behave differently for component values than other text. Sounds like a bug to me.
Al

bobc · December 19, 2015, 2:59pm

Have you tried unchecking the “Values” box in Render tab?

alka · December 19, 2015, 3:36pm

Yep, this hides all values, regardless of the layer. Again, it is too much

My goal is to see the board as it will be produced. Some values are on F.Silks and I want to see them, others are on F.Fab and not supposed to be on the final board.

The print engine works as expected : a value on F.Fab is not printed if F.Fab layer not ticked.

bobc · December 19, 2015, 3:42pm

Ah, now that IMO is a deficiency in Kicad. There are decisions made in the Plot dialog, so you never get a WYSIWG view of the final plot. What I do is generate Gerbers, then view them in gerbv to get a check of the output board layers. Even that is not quite right, but it is close.

alka · December 19, 2015, 5:21pm

Is this forum the right place to declare a “deficiency” ?
I mean : does the developement team come here and take input ?

bobc · December 20, 2015, 1:45am

Not as far as I know. The official route is to raise a bug on the Kicad bugtracker : https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad - I think you need to have a launchpad login.

alka · December 28, 2015, 7:43pm

I’ve opened an entry in the bug report tool. Feel free to add your support.

The issue lies in the legacy viewer :

new OpenGL, Cairo (GAL based) and Print show/hide the Values and Refs as expected. ie, a Ref or Value on a hidden layer, is not visible.
Default (legacy) viewer and GERBER plot do not behave as expected. ie Refs and Values are visible even if the layer is hidden. This is counter intuitive and confusing.