Hi,
I designed a tiny pcb for which I want to remove all footprints text, and add custom text next connection pads.
For this, I unchecked “Values”, “References” and “Footprint Text Front” in the Items pad, and placed some text which I linked to the Dwgs.User layer. All of the footprint text disappeared, but the 3D renderer still shows it and does not show my custom text, so I cannot preview the result before going in production.
Any ideas ? Thanks !
The “Items tab” in the “Layers Manager” are only settings for what the PCB looks like in the GUI, and they have no influence on what is put into gerber files and send out for production.
To change the real visibility of texts you have to use **Pcbnew / Edit / Edit Text & Graphics Properties.
With the settings below you make all the Footprint references invisible.
I do recommend to experiment with this dialog on a copy of you project (or make at least a backup before you start experimenting) because it is a quite powerful dialog that can change lots of texts, and sometimes in subtle ways.
Thanks a lot for this ! That’s really helpful.
This solved the problem concerning footprints texts/references, but I still can’t see my custom words (“Audio Out” near a pad for example) even if I use the same method to make PCB Text & PCB graphic items visible (I even tried filtering by layer using Dwgs.User to which the texts are associated, but I could have used this layer by mistake).
Do you mean you do not see them in the 3D viewer?
The goal of the 3D viewer is to look at your PCB as if it has been manufactured. That means texts have to be on a layer that is sent to your manufacturer, so usually it should be on either F.SilkS or B.SilkS. All the *.User layers are just for your personal notes.
Many layers have very specific meanings in KiCad
You could produce Gerbers including the Dwgs.user layer and rename that layer to F.silk. Check in a Gerber viewer.
(Edit when had more time)
As stated, specific layers have particular meanings - usually the Dwgs.User is for user drawings - maybe a diagram of the mounting holes of the enclosure. However, any layer can be output in Gerber format and you could (ab)use that feature here. If the only silk screen features are on the Dwgs. User layer, simply swap it for the silk layer.
Alternatively you could select everything on the existing silk layer and delete it (or put it on another layer like ECO) and copy the User. Dwgs to the silk layer.
If you do the second option, you can see the final version with the silk screen in the 3D viewer. If you do the first option you will have to rely on the Gerbers (and your fabricator’s preview).
Thanks for your helpful replies. I changed the texts layer to F.SilkS. This worked great.
There’s only some white contours around pads, ICs and pushbuttons which still need to be removed in order to put the text closer. I tried all options in the Edit window without luck, but I’m sure there’s a trivial option somehere for that purpose.
Thanks again for your help !
Those are likely part of the footprints themselves.
Most (all?) footprints have lines on a silkscreen layer to indicate where the parts should be placed, and this helps with (manually) placing parts.
If you want to change these, you have to edit the footprints themselves in the footprint editor (And also learn some library management).
In my case the pcbs are assembled by a Chinese company, so the visual contours don’t care. Actually they made by first batch without visible silks 
What I did was edit the footprint, move those white lines closer to the pads, and save the result in my own library so that the original doesn’t get altered.
Works great so far. I’m even thinking about removing those white contours in the edited footprints as I’ll never need them. If I could even remove the blue ones around the pads, this would help further as the parts can be moved closer to each other, thus reducing the size of the pcb itself (a little bit).
In KiCad V5.1.x the F.SilkS layer is (light) blue in Pcbnew, and white in the 3D viewer, but those are just defaults, and the use of color is not a good way of communicatin on this forum. Using the layer names or posting a screenshot is better.
There is also a “Courtyard layer” (usually with greyish lines) The boxes on this layer should not overlap. The goal of this layer is to ensure that the PCB assembly house has enough room put the actual parts on the PCB. If you violate these rules and put parts too close together, then you may get into trouble if you have your PCB manufactured.
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