kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Jon Evans <jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Simon, JP,

I understand the issue with the colors chosen for OR-mixing.  I thought a
good first step would be to set the framework for the future when that is
no longer relevant (i.e. when there is no legacy canvas anymore).  It can
be a "under the hood" change only in pcbnew, until the legacy canvas is
removed.

BTW Chris, I also have some ideas for improving the visualization of very
busy (dense and high layer count) boards, I will play with them soon...

-Jon

On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 6:32 AM, Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> Let people choose. Have the default colors be wxDC-friendly. Trust me,
> nobody is choosing to work with eight-layer boards in legacy.
>
> On Tue, Feb 07, 2017 at 09:01:10AM +0100, jp charras wrote:
> > Le 07/02/2017 à 06:31, Simon Wells a écrit :
> > > i thought this wasn't possible due to wxDC limitations
> >
> > Exactly, wxDC does not have a transparency feature to draw items.
> >
> > In this case, when you want to draw board layers with a transparency
> effect, the only one other way
> > to do that is to use logic combination between colors (for transparency:
> the OR operation.)
> >
> > In other to achieve a good result, you cannot use any color for layers.
> > You have to choose a set of colors which allows this good result.
> > (by adjusting the 32 bits binary values of each color to ensure a good
> result when 2 or more color
> > values are ORed)
> >
> > There are not a lot of suitable binary values.
> > In all cases the background must be black (when using OR or
> transparency).
> >
> > Note also Eeschema does not use currently transparency, and the choice
> of colors is not critical.
> >
> > >
> > > On 7 February 2017 at 17:00, Chris Pavlina <pavlina.chris@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> > >> I'm working on an eight-layer board and really can't wait for this to
> > >> hit pcbnew too. It's bloody impossible to tell layers apart with
> KiCad's
> > >> state-of-the-80s-art color system.
> >
> > I have made a few boards with 8 and one with 16 layers.
> > There is no perfect way to see all layers.
> >
> > I used Pcbnew and Altium (in a company which has a Altium license) to
> design a 8 layers board (2
> > very similar boards, one with Pcbnew, the other with Altium, because
> this company used Altium).
> >
> > Altium allows arbitrary colors and transparency, but a 8 layers board is
> not easy to manage.
> >
> > So do not expect allowing arbitrary colors and transparency will fix
> your problem.
> > (In the best case, it slightly helps).
> >
> >
> > Having said that, using a selected set of colors does not imply using
> EDA_COLOR_T in Kicad code.
> > wxColor can be used instead of.
> >
> > This is only the *color choice* in Pcbnew which is constrained in legacy
> canvas.
> >
> > EDA_COLOR_T comes from the fact the legacy graphic primitives where
> written for an other library,
> > not for wxWidgets.
> > (Kicad was started before wxWidgets exists)
> >
> > >>
> > >> On Mon, Feb 06, 2017 at 10:03:11PM -0500, Jon Evans wrote:
> > >>> Hi all,
> > >>>
> > >>> I started working on the idea of a color theme system for KiCad,
> starting
> > >>> with the schematic editor.
> > >>>
> > >>> This change relies on a complete removal of EDA_COLOR_T from the
> code, and
> > >>> replacement with a color structure that can handle arbitrary
> colors.  I
> > >>> think this is important and the right path for the future, but since
> it's a
> > >>> significant change, I wanted to get buy-in before going any farther
> down
> > >>> this road.  I can understand the reasons for using an enum for
> > >>> color--especially since it lets the developers restrict the colors
> to those
> > >>> that will work well with the drawing technique of the legacy
> canvases.
> > >>> But, since the new canvases will have no problem supporting arbitrary
> > >>> colors, I think it makes sense to start setting up the groundwork
> for that.
> > >>>
> > >>> In my test code, I have replaced EDA_COLOR_T with wxColour, since
> that is
> > >>> used internally in a few places already, and it was pretty simple
> (although
> > >>> somewhat time-consuming) to replace all usages.  wxColour has the
> nice
> > >>> property of serializing/deserializing from hex color codes like
> "#80FC62"
> > >>> so that's what I use for storing in the settings for now (eventually
> I
> > >>> think color settings should be in their own files so that they can be
> > >>> traded by users).  Plus, there is a canned wxColourPicker widget
> that I can
> > >>> use in place of the custom color picker buttons that are used in the
> > >>> settings today.
> > >>>
> > >>> You can see some screenshots of the (work-in-progress) settings
> dialog
> > >>> changes, and an example of a custom color theme in the schematic
> editor,
> > >>> here:
> > >>> http://imgur.com/a/MxMmb
> > >>>
> > >>> So, any feedback from the core team?  Any reason why I shouldn't move
> > >>> forward with preparing a patch to move from EDA_COLOR_T to wxColour
> across
> > >>> the board?
> > >>>
> > >>> Best,
> > >>> Jon
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> >
> >
> > --
> > Jean-Pierre CHARRAS
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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