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Re: [PATCH] Rearrange Render panel of PcbNew layer widget; add spacers

 

I agree. I think layer visibility data should be saved in board file because that file should be independent of project file and any other files. I would like to be able to send only pcb file via email, and have all information contained there.

Some solution to problem Andy described might be not to mark board modified if only layer visibility was changed.

Both Altium and Kicad have small hole here: board is not marked modified if you flip view or enable high contrast mode, but it is marked if you enable/disable some layer :)

Andrzej


On 02/22/2018 06:48 PM, Jon Evans wrote:
The tradeoff there is that other users will have a workflow that involves setting up a nice set of layers displayed/hidden for working on a board, and want to switch to another set for another board. Maybe saving in the app preferences is okay in the short term, but I think eventually it's best to be able to save custom display states (including layer visibility and other options) in the project. Other software has solved this problem by making multiple project files, and having the idea of the "base" project file and the "user settings" project file, with the latter explicitly not going in to version control.

-Jon

On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 12:15 PM, Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:devel@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:


    On Feb 22, 2018, at 7:58 AM, Jon Evans <jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
    <mailto:jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

    Currently some of the render visibility stuff is saved in the
    application preferences, and some is not saved.
    I think if there are layers related to board item visibility that
    aren't saved, saving them in the project or board makes more
    sense than saving in the app config.

    User perspective:

    Saving the render visibility in the project or pcb file “touches”
    that file, so Kicad will want to save the file when you close the
    project or PCB. And then your source-code control system thinks
    that the file has been modified (because it was!). This sort of
    change has nothing to do with the design, it is only a
    rendering/display detail.

    A common example: I often use pcbnew (or Altium, it has the same
    problem) to view a design, without intending to actually modify
    it. And when doing that, I often change layer visibility and such.
    When closing the pcb file, the user will be asked to save the
    file. “But all I did was look at different layers .. I didn’t
    change the design!”

    So, please, don’t keep layer visibility/rendering information in
    the pcb or project file!

    -a


    Re. 3, yes I think that same framework could be used to add some
    shortcuts for the "render" side pretty easily.

    Re. 2, seems reasonable, haven't looked at the code yet

    I can probably tackle this but can also leave it to Andrzej if
    you are interested in it.

    @Wayne I guess the first patch can be merged now if you are OK
    with it, since Jeff isn't worried about conflicts?

    -Jon

    On Thu, Feb 22, 2018 at 9:53 AM, Wayne Stambaugh
    <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:

        On 2/22/2018 9:10 AM, Andrzej Wolski wrote:
        > If some work on Render panel is still being done, I would
        have some
        > suggestions:
        > 1. "Text Front" and "Text Back" should be renamed to
        something like
        > "Footpr. Text Front" It is misleading now.

        I'm fine with this but please do not abbreviate the word
        footprint.

        > 2. "Bl/Bburied Via" and "Micro Via" could be hidden if they
        are disabled
        > in design settings.

        This makes sense as long as you do not couple the layer
        manager UI code
        to the board object code.

        > 3. It would be nice to have right click menu with something
        like:
        >     "Show all footprint related"
        >     "Hide all footprint related"
        >     "Show all free primitives"
        >     "Hide all free primitives"
        >     "Show all other???"
        >     "Hide all other???"
        >     "Show all"
        >     "Hide all"

        Don't we already have something like this in the layer
        manager (see
        attached image)?

        > 4. State of some checkboxes is not saved.

        I think only the layer visibility states are saved in the
        board file.  I
        would rather not add any more non-board related information
        the board
        file format than is already there.  This state information
        could be
        saved in the project file or the application config file.  My
        preference
        is the project file but it's not a strong preference.

        >
        > If you can't, I could do some of these changes (if it's not
        too late for
        > them).
        >
        > Cheers,
        > Andrzej
        >
        >
        > W dniu 2018-02-22 o 05:39, Jon Evans pisze:
        >> Hi all,
        >>
        >> This patch rearranges the Render panel to be in a more
        logical order,
        >> and adds some whitespace.
        >> I divided it into three groupings:
        >> 1) footprint related
        >> 2) other board objects
        >> 3) non-board stuff like grid, ratlines, etc.
        >>
        >> I also bumped out the default size so that scrollbars
        aren't needed by
        >> default on my Linux system.
        >>


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