I am currently banging my head into the table while modifying footprints to fit DRC.
My case is that I have just gotten DRC configured right in my project, this means I now need to update many footprints to fit the requirements because of for example text being too thin, too small or other things like that.
So what really goes wrong here is after modifying the text in the footprint I then need to go and update the footprint on the PCB. In order to do this I need to select "Update/reset text size, style AND POSITIONS which means my +200 components now resets the position of the text…
I am surprised I haven’t been able to find anyone else complaining about this, I can’t imagine me being the first person in the whole history of KiCad actually using DRC and having to modify a few components.
Current solution I can come up with is double-work. Just update PCB and footprint separately.
I tried the following WHICH I assumed would work:
Lock the text so it cannot be moved and then update the footprint. Text still moved… (bug?)
I am curious if anyone out there have a trick up their sleeve to disable resetting position when updating footprints but still update text size.
It is indeed a bit un-ergonomic to combine the text positions with other settings. There are already 3 check boxes concerning text and it seems logical to me to treat the text position as a 4th checkbox. It seems worthwhile to make a feature request for this on gitlab, but before doing so, you have to first search whether a similar request is already on gitlab, and check the nightlies to see whether this already may have been implemented in the last half year.
In general, the defaults for silk screen text in KiCad’s libraries are quite sensible. Why do you even need to change them? KiCad’s own libraries are a good way to get started with PCB design, but over time you will likely start making your own personal libraries, and you can design them as you wish of course.
But that does not help you for your current design. For that, the best option is probably to simply use PCB Editor / Edit / Edit Text and Graphic Properties
You can change lots of things with help of that dialog.
You can also make big mistakes with this dialog, so make sure you save the PCB before you start experimenting here.
Both @paulvdh and @der.ule answer does work! I was not aware about this feature. That’s actually really nice!
I do agree that it should be considered a feature. In general positions should be left untouched if moved manually for both reference and value.
I try to keep the text size as small as possible as I always have reference values on but remove values and I need to make the designs compact so therefore they can be annoying to fit onto the PCB.
