Rule areas and directive labels are really useful features in the schematic. But those are unnecessary information in the printed or PDF version of a schematic, so I would like to hide them. Rule areas I can hide by creating a theme that sets them invisible, but I can’t figure out a way to do this for the directive labels. Is there a way to hide those from the PDF?
You can hide them on the schematic (Schematic Editor / View / [ ] Show directive labels) but then Schematic Editor / File / Plot / Plot Format: PDF still shows them in the PDF. Other items on the View menu also do not seem to have an effect on the PDF output. I also do not see settings for this in the Plot menu at all. Therefore I conclude it’s probably not implemented at all, at least for KiCad V8.
I think this is a useful option to have. Net directive labels are quite useful, but I agree that you don’t always want to see them, and they may be confused with other items such as power symbols or labels, especiallly on B/W output or when someone who is not familiar with KiCad sees a schematic.
Just for fun. Below a screenshot from the B/W pdf I just created. I made a “thick” net directive label to indicate high current tracks, and set up net classes to use thicker wires. Interpreting the “Thick” directives as labels would make the schematic confusing indeed.
I think this is worth a feature request on gitlab. (Maybe it already exists).
1 Like