Development Highlight: PCBNew Layers, DRC and Toolbar Palettes

Jon Evans introduced a brand new Appearance control in commit bd14f8a82.

The entire Appearance control which is on the right hand side of Pcbnew has received a visual and functional overhaul

In addition to the existing functionality, there is now the ability to Show all Layers, Dim non-selected layers and Hide non-selected Layers

Object types also get opacity and visibility control independent of layers

Individual nets and net classes can also have color overrides sets independent of their layer

Finally, there are Layer Presets, which allow you to either use predefined presets or your own to quickly switch layer settings.

Wayne Stambaugh in commit 188232de6 added the ability to give all layers a custom name and nine new user definable non-copper layers.

Simply set the layer set to custom

And you’ll gain the ability to add the new User Layers

Added by Ian McInerney in commit fc565edb3

Several toolbar actions and new ones combined into toolbar palettes under one toolbar button in "drawing toolbar" which is located on the right hand side of Pcbnew.

These need palettes when clicked on and then dragged left, will open up to show you related tools you can activate and replace the existing tool button with.

Thanks to the work of multiple contributors including Tomasz Wlostowski, Jeff Young, and others. The DRC engine and dialog in PCBNew have received an overhaul.

The DRC dialog has received a visual uplift.

As a major part of the DRC engine overhaul, it has been made possible to script your own rules which allows for more complex rules than can be described by a dialog and makes it easier to reuse them across projects.

The Board Setup window under File > Board Setup contains the new page to store the rules

Rules look like this

More info on the syntax can be found by clicking the Syntax Help link in the Rules page of Board Setup and documentation will be updated for version 6.