Tool for quick alignement of references on silkscreen

Hello,
is there a tool that automatically aligns silk screen references? I have 200-300 components, and don’t want to do it all by hand…
Michael

What do you mean by “aligns”? Can you show an example?

My guess would be: Places the reference in a certain position related to the component, possibly taking into account available space between other components.

For silkscreen cleanup I usually disable all (or most) other layers.

It usually takes a few seconds for each text, so 300 texts and 5s each is already close to half an hour.
Do remember that whatever method you use, you have to have a good look at them anyway, and during silkscreen cleanup i also tend to spot other issues such as overlapping parts (if the courtyard is unreliable).

If your PCB has a lot of repetition, it can be useful to:

  1. Make a copy of some library symbols in a project specific library.
  2. Place the silkscreen text where you want them for those symbols.
  3. Edit the schematic to use your library ( With Schematic Editor / Tools / Edit symbol Library Links)
  4. Update the PCB to move all silkscreen texts for those symbols.

I think he wants the tool like this in altium designer:
image

Because everyone except the OP guesses: I guess it’s about having the references arranged in some grid on the board layout, not directly about having them in some position relative to their footprints.

With SMD boards I never get the luxury of arranging references neatly, squeezing them in so that there are no DRC warnings and errors is always a struggle.
I do find reducing the font size from 1/1 to 0.8/0.8 helps a lot

Sorry, for having forgotten about this topic. I created a feature request.

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