Hi all,
I accidentally swapped front and back layer. Is htere a away to correct that? The Swap Layers only seems to swap layers and not components. I saw a post on how to do that by opening the PCB file in a text editor, but that seemed to be for KiCAD 5 (I’m on 6 now).
Cheers!
BC
Isn’t it View - Flip Board View what you have done?
Or may be Edit-Swap Layers…
Hi Piotr,
that is what I’m doing now but I constantly need to swap things in my brain and think that the Blue Layer is now the front and Red is the back. Rather annoying but a good temporary workaround.
Swap Layers only seems to swap the connections, not the components.
BC
So you started drawing on the top layer with the bottom layer active?
If you double click on the color box in “Layers” you can swap colors for the layers.
I understood your first post that you have swapped layers and not components. Now, reading it second time I see I understood wrongly.
I’m not sure what really happened to your PCB.
Do you see it mirrored or not and only F.Cu and B.Cu replaced each other.
Yes, but when I click a component, it still shows it is placed on the wrong side. If it’s not possible ,it’s not a huge problem, I can just keep on flipping the board.
BC
Same result in 7.0.1.
I don’t know know if this is intentional or not. I’d have thought swapping layers would involve footprints as well as tracks.
Yeah, that would make the most sense.
BC
I can’t see any point in swapping tracks and leaving the footprints behind.
There don’t seem to be any Bug Issues on Gitlab regarding this.
Maybe others know something???
Calling @mf_ibfeew or @eelik or @gkeeth or @paulvdh
One of these knowledgeable members may know something.
Think of it once more.
Swap is swap and not mirror.
For THT PCB you can decide that you want to simply swap layers.
You can decide that you want to swap In1 and In2 layers without flipping footprints.
As I want to go on seeing the pcb from top to bottom, the footprints must stay on its otiginal place. Otherwise the footprints are mirrored and the routed tracks become useless.
this is true for THT components that can be soldered on both sides, but not all are, like radial capacitors.
BC
Nowadays PCBs have all THT pads PTH so it is not argument against being allowed by program to swap layers.
I am only telling that if someone (from any reason) decides that he wants to swap layers than this function is just for that purpose. Of course swapping F and B layers when you use SMD elements is not a good idea but there are many others not good ideas you can realize and KiCad will do what you tell it to do.
And it is good. I hate programs that know better then user what he wants to do and what he shouldn’t do.
You can also swap internal layers, in which case you usually don’t have footprints. I’d guess internal layers are a bigger use case for swapping than internal layers, although I don’t know that I’ve ever used this feature.
I already have written it:
My point was; with THT you can leave the components on the Top Layer and move the tracks up to the top layer also, but with SMD you just can’t leave the components behind when swapping sides.
Yes, flipping the board solves the users problem, but, to me, there is a problem with swapping outer layers that have already placed SMD footprints/components. I also realize mirroring will also be necessary if outer layers containing SMD are swapped.
Maybe no swapping outer layers containing SMD?
Maybe let the user realize it is a lot of trouble??
Personally, I’d Flip the board and reassign the colors for Top & Bottom layers, or if that wasn’t feasible, curse and swear and relay the board with correct layers.
Restore a backup?
Or: PCB Editor / Edit / Swap Layers?
Maybe you are looking for:
This flips the PCB itself, together with all tracks and footprints
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