3d-view shows solder mask and board with same color in realistic mode

[Nelson Oliveira]

The board in realistic 3d-view uses the same color as the solder mask making it impossible to distinguish areas with solder mask from areas without (easily noticed on a edge connector).

The attached patch changes the board color to gray.

[madworm (madworm-de-inkscape)]

Good idea!

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

I have attached a screenshot illustrating the previously suggested patch by Nelson.

I do wonder why the patched color of the soldermask is no the same, I guess it is something about the two layers mixing. I liek the brighter color of the original better. I am note sure if the grey color is the best, but it is ok.

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

Typically unmasked board material is an amber color. That might yield
better results than grey.

On 6/4/2014 2:58 PM, Nick Østergaard wrote:
> I have attached a screenshot illustrating the previously suggested patch
> by Nelson.
>
> I do wonder why the patched color of the soldermask is no the same, I
> guess it is something about the two layers mixing. I liek the brighter
> color of the original better. I am note sure if the grey color is the
> best, but it is ok.
>
> ** Attachment added: "Screenshot illustrating the previously suggested patch"
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1325748/+attachment/4125439/+files/soldermask-diff.png
>

[Nelson Oliveira (nelson-r-oliveira)]

Increased the lum to 0.4 and results do look better, also added a sample with a orange from a pcb picture.
Nick Østergaard is correct and the whole board color changes as the solder mask is only 70% opaque.

Any suggestions for more appropriate color values?

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

I think the epoxy color is better now, I don't know which one is the better. I will let Wayne (or others) decide that. But I would like a more powerfull green color on the resulting solder mask over the epoxy, like the old one if possible.

But maybe the epoxy color should be a bit more yellow'ish, see this PCB, http://m.eet.com/media/1169881/design_femtoampere_circuits_part_3_fig6.jpg

I would suggest something like this, for that epoxy.
const double lum = 0.6/255.0;
glColor4f( 170.0*lum, 158.0*lum, 46.0*lum, aTransparency );

[Nelson Oliveira (nelson-r-oliveira)]

There are different colors on the market

Example from one manufacturer
http://image.made-in-china.com/43f34j00bKoTYavBbcck/Colored-Epoxy-Fiberglass-Laminates-Fr4-G10.jpg

Example from a guy who is using bare boards as mounting structure
http://youtu.be/jcdl6FpdhUA?t=1m37s

In attachment is the proposed color by Nick Østergaard.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

Nelson, sure thing. The pcb I linked was good as an example because you could see both the silkscreen color together with the expoxy color and the gold traces. I won't dictate the colors. But I have tried to fiddle with the numbers, but I have a hard time making the silkscreen color look more bright as it do in the image I linked (more like the color before we changed the epoxy color).

[Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw)]

I can apply this patch with the updated epoxy color as a short term solution but a better solution would be to make these colors user settings. This way you could tweak solder mask and board colors to your hearts content without have to recompile to view the changes. This is going to be a low priority task unless someone wants to step up and implement it.

[Nick Østergaard (nickoe)]

Yep, that I think you should do. It will close this bug. The user settable colors is an other "bug" or wishlist entry.

[Nelson Oliveira (nelson-r-oliveira)]

fixed in revision 5017 by Jean-Pierre Charras