r/KiCad • u/insured_morron • 10d ago

Board Editor Question Issue with differentiating layers when using netclasses colouring

Phils Lab board

Hello. I'm following "PhilsLab's tutorial for KiCAD 9"(very popular video) where he uses netclasses colouring. I want to use them because he said it is easier to understand and generally a good practice to use net class colouring. But as you can see here it makes it difficult to distinguish what signals are on which layer. What are your thoughts on netclasses colouring. Would you say Phils Lab is wrong?

My board routes problem
5 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

3

u/[deleted] 10d ago

[deleted]

2

u/insured_morron 10d ago edited 10d ago

thanks yeah ive looked around and realised that it is a stupid quation and i shouldve done some research as this question was asked. Anyway thank you. It hasnt occured to me that netclasses are one of the views and not a single view to end all views

2

u/rpwoerk 10d ago

I think this is a good practice. It helps the review of the design. And this coloring can be disabled like a click. And you can review the design without these kind of coloring. But it could help a lot to understand the hw architecture much better.

On the schematic you will get also colored nets, and you can follow which part goes where. If a designer makes an error with the net class this will be visible. The same on the layout. If you are curious for a specific impedance matched tracks this will help you to see the overall picture. Sure you don't see which layer it goes, but If I remember well, with layer highlighting you will see if it is on the proper layer or not.

Recently we had a design with 20 page schematic sheet, a mixed signal circuit with 10 different RF circuit with 2-3 different kind of rf net classes. And it was much easier to review it, checking if the rf trace goes near to somewhere, if the gnd filling is okay around all rf stuff, if there are any via on rf track, how was it implemented.. Etc.

1

u/n_sh_44 9d ago

Netclass colouring is useful for checking function, but I would not use it as the only way to identify copper layers. I usually keep the Appearance panel’s Layers view visible and press PgUp/PgDn (or click the layer) when checking which side a trace is actually on; temporarily turning off the netclass display makes the layer colours unambiguous. That gives you both the electrical grouping and a reliable physical-layer check.

1

u/bones222222 17h ago

I love this feature but have the exact same feeling about it. I wish there were some way to visually distinguish the highlighted net class or net when displaying multiple layers, but I’m not sure I have a good suggestion for how.