I have noticed something that seems like a bug, but might just be user error. In any case, it has been very annoying. Whenever I edit the fields in the bulk BOM spreadsheet editor, the info is put in visible text on the schematic. For example, I have been going through my BOM and adding alternate part numbers for all the parts. When I finish adding the part numbers, I go back and look at my schematic and see that every single part has a visible text field for that MPN now, which totally messes up my nicely organized schematic.
Pretty sure what you need it do hide the fields. Select a symbol, press E to open its Properties window, then untick in column Show what you want to be hidden:
The problem is that I have to do this individually on every single part on the schematic. With hundreds of parts, that is extremely annoying. And then any time I want to add alternate part numbers, I have to do it all over again.
You can possibly add those fields to your custom template (Field Name Templates) and untick in the Show column.
Then each symbol added will already have them with your chosen options (field visible or not).
I use a template for the same reason as you (part numbers, manufacturer, supplier, etc) and it work great.
I open my template when starting a new project, but you already have a project started.
In that case you can possibly just a new field in Schematic Setup (see below) and they should show up on the list of available fields for each symbol:
In this case my schematic and board are already finished, I just wanted to add some alternate part numbers to the BOM and now my schematic is a mess. This has never happened with previous versions of kicad, and my workflow for years has been to update the BOM with part numbers at the end of the process, once everything is finalized. Is this considered a bug or intended behavior? I struggle to see the scenarios where this is desirable.
As I said before: Add your custom fields in Schematic Setup > Field Name Templates.
The fields will appear in all symbols, but you don’t have to fill them in all symbol. Just fill what you need.
Or if you want is in bulk - add the filed first, then edit kicad_sch file in the text editor (make sure you have a backup).
