Footprint Value not visible in Pcbnew

[André S.]

I noticed in the latest stable (4.0.7 on Windows 7 64 bit) that Value is only visible in the Legacy canvas.
When switching to OpenGL or Cairo Value is not visible.
The latest Nightly does not display Value regardless of chosen canvas (Legacy, Cairo, OpenGL).

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

That makes no sense. Please take a screenshot of both the layer menu amd the render menu.

[André S. (anschitech)]

I created some screenshots.
As a side note: When switching canvas the current nightly switches from Elements to Layers.
The current stable 4.0.7 stays keeps the Elements visible.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

The nightly probably have some outdated translations.

But I need to see the "Lagen" tab under "Sichtbarkeit".

In OpenGl and Cairo it will put the references from the top layer under the copper when B.Cu is the active layer. This is expected.

You can right click on the layer and set a opacity to be able to see through the layer.

The legacy canvas use another method to mix the colors and in effect it has this transparency look.

[André S. (anschitech)]

No problem, here are the screenshots of the "Lagen" tab under "Sichtbarkeit"

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

Yes, I think this is all as it should be. Try to set the F.Silk as the active layer. Also, you can try to set the opacity of the copper layers to your liking.

[André S. (anschitech)]

I activated silk screen.
Still no Values visible in OpenGL canvas.
See attached screenshots in OpenGL vs Legacy.
In Legacy you can see clearly in yellow the Values of each Footprint (some marked with red triangles), not so in OpenGL.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

The other ones are on the Fab players and you have those disabled.

[André S. (anschitech)]

You are right.
See attached screenshot from Legacy (4.0.7) with enabled Fab layer.
On Legacy the Value is visible regardless of the F.Fab visibility and can only be toggled by the Value option in Elements.

So this is a bug in the Legacy canvas?
If I remember correctly this behaviour was always as observed. Therefore my confusion that Value was not visible on the other canvases.

[André S. (anschitech)]

The advantage of the behaviour of the Legacy canvas: you can display values only.
The disadvantage in OpenGL: you can only have all of the F.Fab and cannot toggle "Value only". It would be great to be able to toggle F.Fab device placement markers off (device outline and Reference).

[Tomasz Wlostowski (twlostow)]

Does it happen only in 4.0.7 or in nightlies as well?

[André S. (anschitech)]

Legacy behaviour differs only in 4.0.7 from OpenGL and Cairo.

At least in the Nightly from 2018-01-02 all canvases show the same behaviour:
- F.Fab/B.Fab enables also Value to be visible
- F.Silks/B.SilkS enables Reference to be visible

Only Legacy on 4.0.7 allows display of Value/Reference independently from the Layer setting.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

So what you say is that you want the render tab to override the layer setting?

So if F.Fab is not enabled, and the reference is on F.Fab and the render tab is enabled for references it should show?

[Jeff Young (jeyjey)]

Too many settings is a bit like too many cooks in the kitchen. While I understand what Andre is asking for, I would respectfully suggest that we not implement it.

[André S. (anschitech)]

What I want to say:
I am used to the way Legacy acts up to 4.0.7 for displaying Reference and Value. (I think it always worked that way).
Somewhere someone choose to change it for OpenGL and Cairo.

I do not work in OpenGL most of the time, because for me it seemed always incomplete, "experimental"; including for the behaviour above. (This may change with 5.0 out)

So I tried Nightly lately and discovered, that there in Legacy also References were missing. After the input from Nick I was able to learn, why References were missing (not enabled F.Fab).