kicad-developers team mailing list archive

["orluke" <orluke@...>]

The new Layers Manager is very well implemented (as of svn r2269), and I'm excited that it's so useful. [built under ubuntu 9.10]

When rendering of a layer is disabled, I feel that the fact that the non-rendered (invisible) elements can still be edited will create some problems for users who don't realize that they might be editing, re-orienting, or deleting elements that are not visible.

A use case that happened to me is that I disabled rendering of the back components, and I went to rotate a front component with the 'r' hotkey. I didn't realize that had the back component layer selected as my working layer, and I rotated a non-rendered component on the back layer under the front component that I had intended to rotate. I only realized that the back component had been rotated because it flashed on the screen for a fraction of a second. Then I re-enabled rendering of the back layer, saw that I had unintentionally reoriented a back component, and corrected it.

I don't know if some logic like "If you can't see an element then you can'taccess or edit it" needs to be enforced, but it would make some sense. Perhaps that wouldn't be necessary if a hatched outline of a non-rendered element appears when hovered over by the mouse pointer or when part of a block selection. Something to think about.

Thanks!
-Luke Orland

PS. This is my initial post to kicad-devel group. I've made a few PCBs withKiCad and I'm currently working on a couple more, so I wish to take this opportunity to thank all of the developers for this awesome tool.