Hi,
could someone check if they have the same issue.
I’ve got some text in the USER.8 layer.
I’ve I do a flip board view, the txt in the USER.8 layer is not mirrored on the screen.
That is because the User 8 layer is not printed on the board. It is used for documentation. Text is only mirrored if that layer is is part of the board production.
Car, Automobile, Wheels, Ride, Vehicle, Short… In the 60’s these were all in reference to the same thing - you open the door, start the motor and drive it.
To me (old and stubborn) Flipping = Reversing, in Kicad and the Gerber bares this out…
But, you’re correct in that the ‘Flip’ board tool in menu does not flip it… (because it’s a Board-View that gets flipped, not the board’s contents)
If the text is part of the board, it gets mirrored when the board is flipped. eg. text on silk or copper.
If the text is not part of the board, it does NOT get mirrored when the board is flipped. eg. documentary (user) layers.
To mirror text on a document layer, use " Select > Mirror"
Not a bug, Kicad has worked this way since function introduced.
No it is.
I’m not trying to flip the text and getting confused about mirroring.
But the flip board view is supposed to represent the board a seen from the bottom.
So everything get flipped (including any text or graphics).
But on the layer USER.8 (and may be other), the text remain invariant when the view is flipped.
So the graphics gets flipped, but not the text. So now kicad is displaying something that is not the actual board.
In my case, I’m using the USER.8 layer as a bottom layer, so each of my text is mirrored to match a bottom layer.
So the read i and check my layout, I’ve use the vie->flip board view, to see the bottom layers as if I’ve was looking at the board from the underside (like flipping the actual physical board).
The Bottom Silkscren is then displayed correctly. Each text on it is mirrored in the setting, then flipped by the view, so It can be rea directly on the screen with no flip.
But on the USER.8 the text is not shown correctly.
I suppose only layers that come as a set for front and back are part of the PCB. What sort of things are you putting on User.8? Maybe it’s better to use F.Fab and B.Fab. These layers are intended for fabrication notes.
Whether the user layers should be mirrored if the PCB is flipped is debatable I guess. My vote would be to have at least a few user layers that come as a set for Front and Back.
For your info, I’m doin a 3 board sandwich. Where I need on each baord something related to the footprint that are on the top board.
So I use some user layer in my footprint to define what will be on the other board.
After I can export the layer as SVG, and import it to create the board of the sandwich.
Yes that’s it.
The first board is the main one, with many THT connector.
under it I put a board with hole to clear the THT (Trough hole) pins.
Then I put a 3rd board under to close the hole.
This give me the bottom of my encolsure, with proper isolation.
So in the middle board, I need to do cutout at the place where my connector are on the top board.
On the bottom board, I use the silkscreen to indicate the role of each plug, so I want the text to be displayed under each connector (and some GFX).
Thanks when doing the screen capture I’ve realised that Kicad has done something bad.
When importing the SVG, the fix discontinutiy must be unchecked to get the proper result on text.
I’ve also noticed some random behavior, when exporting a sque in SVG, and reimporting it as graphics, the square can be filled or not filled at random. It’s a bug, I’ll try to reproduce it proprely before logging it.
