Layer View Set

A gui for saving and loading ViewSets and interacting with a stack of ViewSets for quickly changing the currently visible layers and renders within KiCad.

layerviewset.py and layerviewset_gui.py

Please report any bugs found

**Because of a bug in older nightlies of KiCad, you must currently switch views from and back to OpenGL to see the effect of layerviewset on the layers. This is fixed in commit a557838c615c9b268830138348c6a8d6a4cc9ba9 **

INSTALLATION

LayerViewSet is a ActionPlugin and is installed similarly to other Action Plugins:

1. Place the layerviewset.py and layerviewset_gui.py files in C:\Program Files\KiCad\share\kicad\scripting\plugins Or the equivalent in MacOS or Linux (there may be a user-level directory for such files, but I am not aware of it at the moment.)
2. Within KiCad pcbnew, select the Tools > External Plugins > Refresh Plugins

LayerViewSet dialog box is shown when the Tools > External Plugins > LayerViewSet menu item is selected.

USE

Selecting the menu item brings up the window allowing you to control a Named ViewSet List on the left and a ViewSet Stack on the right. The buttons at the top allow you to control the stack. While right clicking for the context menu on a button allow you to name view sets and delete them.

Within the Layer Manager, the layers are listed in the Layer tab and the renders are listed in the Render tab. LayerViewSet allows you to save either or both of these lists in memory (on the ViewSet Stack) or on disk (on the Named ViewSet List). Both the stack and the list are available in their entirety to load any of the ViewSets into the Layer Manager, affecting the visibility of the currently viewed PCB.

ViewSet Stack

You can push the currently visible layers and or renders to the top of the stack as one of three types of ViewSet:

1. Layers - only pushes Layers onto the stack. When popped or selected, only the layers' visibilities are modified.
2. -v- - pushes both Layers and Renders onto the stack. When popped or selected, both the renders' and the layers' visibilities are modified.
3. Renders - only pushes Renders onto the stack. When popped or selected, only the renders' visibilities are modified.

Each type of ViewSet appears on the stack with a slightly different label. When view sets are pushed onto the stack, they get the label "[number of layers]/[number of renders]".

Here is a little guide on the stack label format:

• 3/5 - 3 layers are visible and 5 renders are visible
• 2/ - 2 layers are visible and renders will be unchanged
• /4 - layers will be unchanged and 4 renders are visible
• 0/3 - 0 layers are visible and 3 renders are visible

Note the subtle distinction between "/4" and "0/3".

Popping the stack (--^--) pulls the top item from the stack and sets the corresponding check boxes, affecting either the Layers, Renders, or both depending on the type of ViewSet.

You can also select any item on the stack directly. This will set the visibility as appropriate, but not change the stack at all.

Named / Saved ViewSet

All Named ViewSets are persisted in ~/kicad/viewsets. And none of the stack ViewSets are persisted. For this reason, there is not a separate "load" or "save" button or menu item.

Right clicking any button brings up the option to either "Name" or "Delete" the ViewSet. If you name a set on the stack, it is added to the list on the left and persists between KiCad runs (in ~/kicad/viewsets). If you name an already named stack, it is renamed.

Deleting a ViewSet

Deleting a view set removes it from the list or stack and deletes the persistent file, if any.

Example of use

Because the expected interaction with this control is low, there is not a need to complicate the user interface. The actions have been chosen carefully to allow full flexibility with a minimum of available actions. Here is an example of how you would save the currently visible layers to disk:

• Select the "Layers" button to push the current layer visibility on the stack.
• Right click on the new button at the top of the stack.
• Select "Name" to save the named view set.
• Right click on the top of the stack again and
• Select "Delete" to remove the view set from the stack.
• The view set remains on the named list and will persist to future runs of KiCad.