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Date:	Tue, 28 Feb 2012 23:29:55 -0700
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Subject:	Re: [geda-user] Vias smaller than 21mil; making REFDES disappear in PCB
From:	Russell Dill <Russ DOT Dill AT asu DOT edu>
To:	geda-user AT delorie DOT com
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> (2) I am laying out a board where the layout is very tight.  There is no
> room for REFDESes.  However, I will need the REFDESes in the printout of the
> layout because the board will assembled by hand.  I would like a way to turn
> the REFDESes on the PBC  selectively on and off, so when I print the gerbers
> to send to fab house, the REFDESes which take too much space will not show
> up, but I can still turn on the REFDESes at a later time, when I print the
> layout at some magnification. The silkscreen contains some items I would
> like printed on the actual PCB, so it is not an issue of turning the
> silkscreen on and off.  I manipulated the PCB with vim, turning all REFDES
> sizes to zero.  Unfortunately, PCB printed little blobs on the silkscreen
> then.  Any ideas?

What you want is an assembly drawing. PCB has some support for this,
just not the features you want. There is a pretty good example here:

http://blogs.mentor.com/tom-hausherr/blog/2011/05/04/pcb-design-perfection-starts-in-the-cad-library-part-16/

Modifying PCB to support that would be pretty easy. The first step
would be would be always printing the refdes in the center of the
part. The second would be specifying some flag for certain pads not to
print so that they don't obscure the refdes, this could be automatic.
And the third would be to add an optional outline layer for
footprints. If the layer is there, it uses that, otherwise it uses the
silk.

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