Mail Archives: geda-user/2015/10/05/03:26:29
On Sun, Oct 04, 2015 at 03:56:23AM +0200, Kai-Martin Knaak wrote:
> Markus Hitter wrote:
>
> > .. I learned that there are no less than three special modes for
> > ignoring text, hiding text and/or ignoring anything but text exist.
>
> My use cases:
>
> 1) "lock names"
> Many of my SMD symbols have their text placed right in the middle of
> the silk artwork. This makes it easy to recognize which symbol the
> text belongs to. I tend to shrink my boards as much as sensible to
> decrease the cost of production. More often than not this results in
> not enough open space to put refdes or value outside the footprints.
> So text inside the footprints is the only way to go, anyway.
> With the text inside it becomes hard to grab and move a footprint
> rather than just its text. So I habitually always activate "only
> names" during placement.
>
> BTW, the string "only names" tends to confuse new users at my place.
> They don't automatically associate a value with a "name". What this
> flag really is about is "text". In addition, text is not actually
> locked in place. It will move in parallel with the footprint. The flag
> is really more an ignore. How about "ignore text"?
>
> 2) "only names"
> Once done with placement and routing I like to add some finishing
> touches to the silk layer. At this stage I generally don't want to
> manipulate the position of footprints. So an option to ignore
> everything but text comes handy.
>
> In the same vein as above I propose to rename of this option to read
> "only text".
>
> 3) "hide names"
> Manual routing of densely populated boards benefits from as little
> graphical distraction in the main window as possible. Since I let the
> rats guide me, refdes strings or values are not needed and just
> clutter the view. Deactivating the silk layer completely is an
> inferior option because the silk artwork provides valuable hints as to
> where components are. It would prevent me from moving footprints, too.
I agree with your points but I dislike the new naming, many poor choices
in PCB may be due to the first author being not being a native english
speaker (element among them).
In this case, I think that neither "name" nor "text" are good choices, I
would certainly prefer "silkscreen labels". This is longer, but that's
the best compromise between consiceness and accuracy I could find.
The fact that the choice of the mode is not reflected on the GUI is also
annoying, maybe the "only silkscreen labels" and "lock silkscreen
labels" modes should grey out (paint with less vivid colors) the non
selectable elements to provide a visual feedback.
> In summary, I am glad all three modes exist. I'd even contemplate to
> extend the concept. E.g, shift-click a layer button to ignore it for
> mouse driven actions but still keep it visible.
>
Gabriel
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