How to forward user fields from schematic symbols to layout footprints?

Is there a way to forward user fields from schematic symbols to layout footprints?

Just tried to add ‘manf’ to a footprint, because my symbols have this field, but upon opening cvpcb it complains about thi being an unknown thing and stops loading the library…
So, probably no.

Yes, I suppose it’s only “Reference” and “Value” fields that get forwarded from schematic to layout

What did you had in mind to forward besides those? - really curious :slight_smile:

Well, in this particular case I have a symbol with no pins that defines a bare PCB. Once added to schematic it automatically appears in BOM export. This symbol has a user field “Partnumber”. I’d like to assign a footprint to this symbol with the value of symbol’s “Partnumber” field being put on “F.Cu” layer of the footprint.

Sure, I could use the “Value” field for that but I don’t want to break the way my library is organized: where necessary I assign separate user fields to symbols in schematic (e.g. “Manufacturer”, “Partnumber”, “Package”, “Resistance”, “Capacitance”, “Current” etc).

So at the moment my workaround is to have a separate footprint per PCB design revision on which I add bare PCB partnumber in simple text on “F.Cu” layer (with help of text editor :wink: )

Yeah, must be something that is hard coded for Value and Reference fields… just tried with a ‘user’ field in the symbols definition (as other text in the footprint has this field name), but nothing comes through.

The pcb partnumber field then ‘describes’ the finished/populated pcb or is it the ordering number at the board house?
Thanks for sharing the workflow though.

PCB partnumber is for bare PCB. It’s something I assign myself and use as ordering number at board manufacturer.

Here is a more detailed description of my system:

  • Bare PCB naming convention: {design name}-PCB-{ver}, where:

  • {ver} - layout version

  • Example: PCIERISER-PCB-0: PCIERISER bare board, layout version “0”

  • PCBs with different layout version differ in some features of bare PCBs

  • Create schematic symbol to denote bare board. It shall appear in BOM and as copper or silkscreen text in layout

  • Assembled PCA naming convention: {design name}-PCA-{ver}-{var}, where:

  • {ver} - layout version

  • {var} - assembly variant (related to the layout version)

  • Example: PCIERISER-PCA-0-0: PCIERISER assembled board, layout version “0”, assembly variant “0”

  • Each layout version has its own assembly variants numbering starting from “0”

  • Create schematic symbol to denote board assembly variant. It shall appear in BOM and as a placeholder for a label in layout

  • Build batch naming convention: {design name}-BLD-{date}, where:

  • {date} - build date

  • Example: PCIERISER-BLD-20151201: PCIERISER assembled board, build on 1st December 2015

  • Create schematic symbol to denote assembly build. It shall appear in BOM and as a placeholder for a label in layout