Hi-

I'm a lurker on this l= ist, so I realize that my opinions and suggestions are probably not importa= nt to anyone. Feel free to ignore them. However, I think that perhaps the f= eatures you are discussing here are specific subsets of a more general feat= ure that many users might find useful.

The feature I'm re= ferring to is what you might call a general selection filter. The idea is t= hat with a filter applied, only objects matching the filter criteria can be= selected and therefore modified (at least with the mouse, I imagine that y= ou could still modify anything from the command interface). With a tool lik= e this, you could specify "silk screen objects" and "text o= bjects". This would restrict you to being able to modify silk screen t= ext. You could also specify "not text", or "tracks", or= "components"... etc. to restrict selections to those items.
<= br>

This is not a feature request on my part, nor is it a request= for any action. I have no idea how hard it would be to implement, or if it= 's even possible given how things are structured. It's just an idea= that you might want to consider if you're thinking about changing the = features previously mentioned.

Cheers,

--Ch= ad

On Mon, Oct 5, 2015 at 3:25 AM, Gabriel Paubert (paubert AT iram DOT es) [via <geda-user AT delorie DOT com> wro= te:

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<= br> > > ignoring text, hiding text and/or ignoring anything but text exis= t.
>
> 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<= br> > names" during placement.
>
> BTW, the string "only names" tends to confuse new users at m= y place.
> They don't automatically associate a value with a "name"= . What this
> flag really is about is "text". In addition, text is not act= ually
> 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<= br> > 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 poo= r 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" ar= e good choices, I
would certainly prefer "silkscreen labels". This is longer, but t= hat'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 silks= creen
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.
>

=C2=A0 =C2=A0 Gabriel