Text to Inherit Reference Designation

Layout Footprints
1

Hi All,

What I am looking to do is have a reference designator for the footprint on both the silkscreen layer and the FAB layer. This requires 2 separate text items displaying the reference designator. Now I have done this successfully for some footprints by just copying the Reference designator field (REF**) so I know its possible. However, this doesn’t work all the time. What I am wonderings is specifically what mechanism causes a text field to inherit a value (i.e. Reference Designator) rather than just display the text, and how can I do this reliably? Thanks in advance!

Cheers,
Chris

2

%R is the secondary refdes.

1 Like
3

Thank you so much!

Just for clarification on the Forum populating the text field with %R will have that text field inherit the reference designation.

4

KLC might be useful reading for some aspects of footprints. https://kicad.org/libraries/klc/#_footprint_guidelines. %R is mentioned there.

5

I have a faint memory that a footprint must include one instance of " REF** " (and ONLY one instance of " REF** "!) before " %R " will work reliably.

Dale

6

I think so, too. ------

7

In kicad version 2013 yes.

KiCad v4 and newer have a dedicated reference field that can have any value in the footprint. It is customary to still use REF** put there is no technical reason for it.

The same is true for the value field.

8

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