Before generating PCB documentation I need to final position element values. I have a problem that when I press ‘M’ it frequently catches the whole footprint and not only value text. Sometimes I got a question if I wont to move the element or only its value, but in many situations it always wont to move the whole footprint what is not what I wont. In one element I have tried more than 10 times and couldn’t move the value text.
I supposed that may be if I will select the F.CrtYd layer at which are those texts it will help but not.
Is there a good way around for that PCB design stage ?
KiCad 5.1.4
Does High contrast view mode help?
Yes. Thanks.
It changes close to nothing at view as I switched off all layers I’m not interested, but M catches only the values.
EDIT: I see it is more useful when I switch background back to black (normally I prefer to work with white background but “high contrast view mode” is not compatible with it).
One more with final positioning values.
I prefer when vertical texts go from down to up. It is ok at top layer, but at bootom layer they are reversed.
Do I have any influence at it?
I know that there will be some changes making working with not black background easier, but now I have to use what is.
Does it help? Absolutely! In combination with dark backgrounds a resounding yes.
I for one use whenever possible black backgrounds. Easiest to focus on the actual content rather then getting sledge hammered by white which simply constitutes an unnecessary ‘information’ overload.
Just because paper happens to be white, for obvious reasons, does not mean the same is useful for screens.
Would you prefer to see that kicad-forum conversations in white on black, or may be you see it that way. Me not.
Well all my IDEs are set to dark mode. It is for me easier to distinguish syntax highlighting that way. So maybe the forum would benefit from a dark mode (i seem to remember it was requested some time ago but nobody had the time to really look into it)
I also experimented with making a light background theme for pcbnew but could not get it to work. Things like ratsnest lines are much easier to see with dark background. (even with less colour diference. A thin light gray line is very obvious on a dark gray background while a thin black line is harder to see on a white background let alone a thin dark gray line on a light gray background.) Meaning to me it seems that either the human eye is better at seeing light on dark or our technology (monitors) show light on dark clearer. Another option is that the kicad rendering engine screws something up when pcb new is set to a light background.
Cool, i kind of missed that it was introduced.
I don’t know how to get it.
Click on…
- your icon
- the little cogwheel
- Interface
- Theme
My first feeling of pcbnew (default colours) was that everything is dark. For example red is really not red but brown for me (RGB=132/0/0) and green is rotten green (0/132/0).
Because of this I decided to try to work as I am used since 20 years (Top=255/0/0, bottom=0/0/255 and white background). I am on the way to decide with what colours to work.
My current stage (moje = mine):
See how dirty is KiCad red.
1 Like
I don’t know that word - I would never expect there the “background setting”.
I do not use the kicad default. I use my own theme found here: https://github.com/pointhi/kicad-color-schemes (currently blue green dark before that i used the behave theme)
I takled about the theme in this kicad forum.
As for KiCad you need to go to Eeschema, Preferences, Colors and have a play with it.
I had not noticed in myself any need to change eeschema colours. There you don’t have several things one on another. Today I have got into new problem connected in some way with pcbnew colours. I will ask as New Topic.
This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.