kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 2/1/2018 4:31 AM, jp charras wrote:
> Le 31/01/2018 à 16:47, Jeff Young a écrit :
>> When we display the layers of a pad, we display the top-most and bottom-most layers, and then
>> include “Internal” if there are also any internal layers, and “Non-copper” if there are also any
>> non-copper layers.
>>
>> Sounds good so far.  Unfortunately, the composed string can be confusing:
>>
>> Pad 7 of U1 on F.Cu, B.Cu, Internal, Non-copper
>>
>> “Internal” and “Non-copper”, because they’re not actual layer names, parse like they’re descriptors
>> of the whole pad: a blind, NPTH pad on front and back copper layers.  Say what?
>>
>> Do we really need to know that there are non-copper layers included?  Presumably the masks always
>> are, so that does little to distinguish one pad from another.
>>
>> What about:
>>
>> Pad 7 of U1 on F.Cu - B.Cu

"all copper layers"

>>
>> for those that include internal layers and:
>>
>> Pad 7 of U1 on F.Cu, B.Cu

"front and back layers"

>>
>> for those that don’t.
>>
>> Or, if we really want everything:
>>
>> Pad 7 of U1 on F.Cu - B.Cu and others

"all layers"

>>
>> Thoughts?

The problem with F.Cu, B.Cu, etc. is that users have to know the kicad
layer stack names which is asking a lot.  IMO, this falls under the
category of programming terminology leaching into UI strings.  The only
exception would be in the case where the user renamed a non-copper
layer.  In this case, it would make sense to use the user defined name.

> 
> Agreed for "Non-copper" that is ambiguous.
> 
> Pads on all copper layers could be:
> 
> Pad 7 of U1 on *.Cu, others
> 
> (this is a shorter sentence).
>