Move and Swap Layer

I’m trying to invert the front and back of an existing PCB using the “Move and Swap Layer” function. But for the life of me can’t get it to do anything.

I’m basically selecting the opposite layer for everything that is a pair of front/back, such as Cu, SilkS, Mask, etc.
So, for F.Cu, I’d select B.Cu, and visa-versa, same for all the other paired layers.

However, nothing happens after clicking OK, nothing swapped, no error message.

How to use this function?

I’m on KiCad 5.0.0

I think you are looking to “Flip” the items. Select what you would like to swap and right-click, select “Flip”.

Edit: I see the menu you were looking at in “Edit”. We should probably adjust that description.

No, that did actually flip it. I’m trying to put the top of the board on the bottom and the bottom on the top.

I did find that it works for copper traces if I change the PCB to a 4 layer PCB, but even then it still only works for the traces.

Not sure I really understand what you want to achieve but you can flip the view by using View / Flip board view.

If you want to “move” items (tracks, via etc.) from one layer to another, try to select them (you can refine selection with right-click / Select / Filter selection) and use right-click / Properties to modify the layer.

Sounds like the X-Y problem, what is it you are trying to do, i.e. what prompted you to swap?

KiCad can’t simply move footprints to other side of the board without flipping the footprint.

For one board I decided it was easier to design from the top instead of the bottom, so flipping the whole board worked. With v5 there is a “flip view” option, so maybe that is no longer necessary.

This topic was automatically closed 90 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.