Removing value and reference from PCB

James_Fowkes 2014-12-08 21:55:56 UTC #1

How do I remove the reference and/or value silkscreen from a module in Pcbnew?

I'm assuming there's a way, as most PCBs don't have both these things for each and every component.

I can individually set the reference and value to be blank, but this seems like a drawn-out hack rather than a solution.

I'm migrating from Eagle to KiCad, so I'm having to re-learn a lot of stuff, this is one of them.

Thanks in advance.

James_Fowkes 2014-12-08 21:57:20 UTC #2

Oh, I have tried searching for this. Either I'm not quite getting my search terms right or it's so obvious that no-one's felt the need to write it down before.

StefanHamminga 2014-12-08 22:50:14 UTC #3

Hover over the reference or value and hit 'e', there you can toggle visibility. I'm not sure if the website builds have it, but if you have a recent build there is a 'Cmts.User' layer, instead of hiding a reference / value I prefer to move them there, so they still show up on a printout (which I like to keep at hand while assembling), but not in the CAM files.

Dolganoff 2014-12-09 06:59:54 UTC #4

If you just want to hide one of them while working on the board layout, switch the visibility of the values or the references from the layer manager (the pane with layer names on the right, in its second tab.
When plotting to gerbers later, you can choose to use them or not too.

James_Fowkes 2014-12-09 08:49:47 UTC #5

Ah, the visibility in the "Render" tab was the step I was missing. Thanks!

James_Cullins 2014-12-11 15:08:01 UTC #6

Stefan,
I like that idea, how to you move it to then 'CMT.User' layer?

StefanHamminga 2014-12-11 15:28:18 UTC #7

Hitting 'e' over the reference and using the layer dropdown. Or am I missing something in your question?

You can do this in the footprints too, if you want to have this by default.

James_Cullins 2014-12-11 16:43:40 UTC #8

That is it thanks my friend.

Aus_Rasul 2015-10-06 16:44:13 UTC #9

In the layer manager toolbar, under the Render tab, there are "Values" and "References" you can toggle them on and off.

breadboardkiller 2015-12-10 00:36:35 UTC #10

Fantastic, thanks. Was going crazy trying to figure out why they didn't disappear even when I turned the F.Fab layer off.

greanie 2017-04-13 09:44:16 UTC #11

I have disable the reference on a single component through the hover approach. How do you I re-enable it?

Rene_Poschl 2017-04-13 09:52:42 UTC #12

Option 1: in the render tap enable invisible text and use the hover technique again.
Option 2: open the footprint properties (press e on top of the footprint) and edit the text field properties. (This only works for the main reference and value fields, not for secondary fields used in the newer footprints of the library.)

Disclaimer: This screenshot and information comes from a development version. Small details might differ in the stable release.

greanie 2017-04-13 09:54:17 UTC #13

Great!! Thanks for the tip and quick reply!!