Display of NPTH hole in V9rc3

bertrand_meneroud · February 15, 2025, 8:35am

Hi, in V9.0.0 rc3 on windows.

The NPTH on my board are not visible.
Actually I can see a circle if the F.mask or Bottom Mask is displayed. But if the msk layer are not displayed, then the hole are not drawn at all.

Here with the mask layer on :

I would expect at least a small circle indicating the hole even if the mask layer are not displaed.
Also if the hole is not done on the mask, then it is not shown at all.
It gets displayed if I select the footprint :

To me this seems to be a bug, but may be I’m missing a seting.
Note I’ve done a fresh install keeping the default kicad setting (I said no to import setting from previous install).

bertrand_meneroud · February 15, 2025, 8:45am

If I play with the pad setting,
By putting copper around the hole, but still a mecanical hole.
The display so a copper pad without a hole in the middle.

The preview in the pad setting is correct, but not the display on the PCB

eelik · February 15, 2025, 8:57am

What are the visibilities in PCB editor Appearance → Objects tab?

eelik · February 15, 2025, 9:03am

I can get the bright blue (or is it turquoise?) holes disappear from the board if inactive layers are hidden and some other than a copper layer is active. But otherwise the hole is visible in blue/turquoise as it is in the preview of your pad properties screenshot.

There’s also color for the holes in color schemes:

Here’s a hole in 9.0.0-rc3-1-g66cbc8127b on Windows:

bertrand_meneroud · February 15, 2025, 9:15am

So,
If I open a pcb in standalone mode the NPTH hole is not displayed (if the mask are disabled).
But If I open in project mode the NPTH hole is displayed.

Display in project mode :

Display when running pcb new in standalone mode (I’ve 2 pcb in then same folder, so I’ve open PCB1 . pro, and from the project tree I’ve double clicked on PCB2).

eelik · February 15, 2025, 9:20am

Standalone works for me.

Can you give a zipped project where this happens? Including your local settings (.kicad_prl file).

bertrand_meneroud · February 15, 2025, 9:38am

Thanks for your help.
But the problme disapear when I save the projet with the V9, and reopen it.
So it’s probably something a bit broken in my files, or an issue when loading the older version of the file.

I’ve attached the file tha shows the issue. I’ve put it alone in a directory.
I open it by right clicking, the selecting ope with pcb new V9 standalone
And the NPTH hole are shown during the openning of the file, but they disappear at the end of the loading.
BaseV2 - Copie.kicad_pcb (276.5 KB)

If I save the file and reload it. Then it works OK. So it’s definitly not a major issue.

eelik · February 15, 2025, 11:47am


(kicad_pcb (version 20171130) (host pcbnew "(5.1.5)-3")

The same happens here, so it’s definitely this. Usually saving to the newer format is the first thing I would do. Most people would never notice this bug.