I’m been playing in the footprint editor. ok so here is a question.
I made a big pad, like my QFN ground pad
I need to put a custom aperture screen 9x9 1mm sq array in there for the paste.
I turn off the paste layer for the big pad (good)
I put a new pad down, use E to edit properties, and set the pad number to BLANK.
first one goes down OK
then I place the rest of them, but now it is counting up numbers for pad numbers !
noooooo
OK so I copy the good pad to default pad
then I copy default pad to selected pads
the pad number does not copy… mmmm
hmmm
so I try doing a pad renumber . no, that won’t let me put blank in all the pads
I need to rename them all manually, or export to script, regex it, and import…(painful)
ideas? suggestions ?
Sorry, I’m not quite with you.
You want this aperture screen in your F. Paste for a stencil?
yes. any suggestions for my problems ? Seems manually editing properties for each or using the export- import is the only way I can find.
Create your 9 X 9 on the F.Cu
Switch to F.Paste layer
Create a pad on F.Paste
Open Properties
Select SMD Aperture for Pad Type edit to 1 X 1.
Place second pad (should be the same as the now edited first pad)
Every Left click should now create a new pad.
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thanks for the suggestion.
Oh right : Pad type SMT APERTURE
right. OK yes that works.
Can we control layer drawing order ? Otherwise I need to change the opacity to see the apertures I am placing. Can I display F.PASTE first ?
On the right is Appearance manager (you know)
In the layes tab:
Double left click on the Color allows you to change colors/opacity/density.
Note: to change or alter colors you need to go to Preferences > Colors in each editor and change the Theme… see next post.
Beside that in the “eye” this switches layers on and off.
Beside the layers is Objects - explore.
Under Layers are: Layer Display Options and Selection Filter - explore these.
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ahhh so no actual layer drawing order control, but enough control with clicking on the layer and or adjusting the opacity / transparency of pads. good. thanks.
Kicad color themes, like the libraries, are read only.
To mess with the colors: Click on the arrow on the RH side of the themes box.
Select New Theme, dream up a name, and the current theme in use (the Kicad theme) is now yours, to do with as you wish.
There is a lot of basic and not so basic stuff here in the Kicad documents; if you’re interested in some bed-time reading. 
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two additional hints:
- appearance panel: instead of switching on/off layers abd adjust transparency: try to use the dim-mode for display
- 3 display modes are available (directly below the color-area in the appearance panel): normal - dimmed - hide.
- instead of using aperture pads it’s also possible to just draw rectangle/circles in the Paste layer
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