F.silk rendered under f.cu, why?

Is there a reason why silk is rendered under the copper layer and not on top of it? I.e., F.silk is rendered under F.cu on screen making it hard to see - sure I can turn of the F.cu layer but since silk is on the actual PCB on top of the cu layer, why not do the same when it is designed?

The currently active layer (the one with the blue arrow next to it) is always rendered on top. This is done because you likely want to see the layer you work on right now.

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Ahw, of course - I practically never use that, so used to toggling layers on/off - but I should. Would be nice to have some shortcut keys for all this z-stack rendering…

You can also set transparency values for the stacked layers, I use it in my designs to see other layers if needed.

Yep, did also. Additionally, if you pick contrasting colors and a bright color(s) for front and darker color(s) for back layers you get a nice depth effect. Anyway, moving silk up front is best for visibility. I just need to get used to select that ‘active layer’…

To be honest i always hide the silk layer until the very end. I use the fab layer during design (with values hidden). Only near the end to i turn on the silk layer and ready it for production (ensure the refdes fields are placed such that they are visible and not cut up by pads or vias)

I (and most people I guess) tend to switch a lot between layers, and to focus on a specific layer when working on it I absolutely love the high-contrast mode. It gives focus to the current selected layer, and makes all other layers dark and more transparent. It used to be hot-key ‘h’, but later on it became ctrl+h if I’m right. I still like to change it to ‘h’ because I use it a lot.

Perhaps this could help.

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