Pcbnew - Cannot see component footprints on bottom layer

While working on the bottom layer I cannot see the Bottom silkscreens, courtyards, fabs etc. of components assigned to the bottom layer despite all these options being checked in the Layers Manager. I can see pads, vias and PTHs. It almost seems like the bottom copper layer is being displayed above all the other bottom layers thereby blocking them from view.

In KiCad the active layer is drawn on top.

So if you select the bottom Silkscreen as the active layer then it should be visible quite well.

It’s not much different from working with the top layers.
If F.Cu is the active layer, you also do not see much of F.SilkS, especially when more footprint pads, copper tracks and other stuff gets added.

If you do not see B.SilkS when it is selected then there is something wrong.

Layer visibility can (and should) be improved, but I’m not really sure how to define a set of rules to improve viewability. Simply pulling the “active layer” to the front is very simple but it surely is not the best method conceivable.

It helps a bit if you set the opacity of some layers lower (Start around 70%). You can do this by double clicking on the colored square in front of the layer name in the layers manager.

Thanks for the suggestion with opacity. I now realize that what I’m experiencing is true for the top layer, I’ve been working with unfilled top layers so much on this project didn’t even notice it before making this thread. So I guess something I would like to see in the future is the ability re-arrange the layers so the copper aren’t above the rest.

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