topic Re: Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer in EAGLE Forum

Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer

iquacker — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 20:48:15 GMT

How hard would it be to make display of pad names into a layer like so many other things, rather than having to dig through the Options menus to change it? It seems a simpler and quicker way to work, to me.

Re: Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer

jm2morri — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:10:40 GMT

I don't see the need. It's a configuration setting and, as per usual with EAGLE, you can do it from the command line. And that means you can then assign to a hot-key sequence or even add to your custom menu with the menu command.

The command is:

SET PAD_NAMES OFF

type that in and the pad names will no longer show up. Change OFF to ON to go the other way.

See "help set" for more details and other settings that you can configure in the same way.

Cheers,

James.

Re: Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer

iquacker — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:25:48 GMT

I see the display of the pad names having the same level of importance as the display of any other commonly listed layer. Following your logic, there are many presently listed layers that should be demoted and removed from the layer dialog box but could be optionally hotkeyed if needed.

Regards -

Re: Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer

jm2morri — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:32:45 GMT

I'm not sure about that. I see what you're saying but other layers (say tDoc or similar) still represent real elements that could be included (and I do) in various types of documentation output. The display of pad names is, in my opinion, an aid to the engineer during layout to help understand the context of the circuit.

So I see those things as different. But to each his own I guess.

If your concern is being able to turn it on and off quickly, then I gave you a solution to do that. As for the philosophical discussion, that could go on and on 🙂

James.

Re: Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer

iquacker — Thu, 08 Nov 2018 21:56:48 GMT

...And the discussion might go on and on since I see your choice to not elevate it to a layer function as being fairly arbitrary.

To illustrate my point, one could easily say that the "unrounted" layer is by your definition, another example of an "aid to the engineer." Yet that is a layer. Also, I recently requested that different unrouted nets be shown in different colors as an aid to decluttering the display without hiding the individual nets. When Jorge replied that it was a good idea, but very complex to implement, I then suggested that the problem could be solved by making named nets into different layers that could have different colors - or be easily turned on and off. On that basis, he entered my suggestion for development. So perhap boarding our vision for what layers should be asked to do, is a good thing.

Regards -

Re: Suggestion: Make Display of Pad Names Into A Layer

jorge_garcia — Fri, 09 Nov 2018 00:02:53 GMT

Hello @iquacker,

Just to add to James comments, this can also be controlled by going to options > Set > Misc tab. There's a check box that can be adjusted there if you prefer.

I agree the definition is fairly arbitrary, but I agree that in this case it shouldn't be a layer. There's nothing that can be modified with the pad names, items on layers can generally be created and modified. In this case turning something that is an on/off function into a layer seems like a waste of a layer. EAGLE does have a limit on the number of layers that can be created (256) so I would like to avoid using things for layers that can be handled by other interfaces. Additionally, the pad names on/off is not something that would get changed very often so again turning it into a layer seems a bit of a waste.

If this gets more support then I'm happy to make ticket for it. If you find yourself switching this setting constantly then you could assign it to a shortcut for easy access. It seems that is really what you would want by having it be a layer.

Let me know if there's anything I can do for you.

Best Regards,