Placing Components on Both Sides of the PCB?

Help
1

By default components only appear to be positioned on the top of the pcb. How does on push it to the bottom side?

Regards

Greg

2

A Work Around

  • Having created the initial “default” Package I renamed it to “default - TOP”.
  • Next I copied it and named it “default - BOTTOM”.
  • Editing “default - BOTTOM”: I selected all package elements and mirrored them.
  • Still editing: I selected each outline element in turn and changed from top to bottom. I also did the same for the text elements.

Don’t forget other elements such as: the Grab area, documentation, keep out etc.

Problem: The Messages: area reports

 Layer of '{{VALUE}}' in 'default - BOTTOM' is not 'Top Values'  also

 Layer of '{{NAME}}' in 'default - BOTTOM' is not 'Top Names'

Don’t fix them.

The appears to work for through hole but I have not yet tried it for surface-mount devices.

3

Idea for a Better Way:

By default when a package is created its elements are assigned to the TOP LAYER: Top Placement, Top Names, Top Values etc. etc.

It would be better to assign them to a generic level such as PLACEMENT LAYER: Placement, Placement Names, Placement Values etc. etc.

When it comes to actually placing the element on the board:

Two Radio Buttons are available marked “Top Placement” and “Bottom Placement”. These control the actual placement of the device, self explanatory I guess. The selection also results in the part being mirrored.

Selecting ‘Properties’ for a device a device provides the opportunity to edit the layer the device is assigned to.

4

Hi, it’s actually very simple: In the board editor, mark the desired device and press “F” (flip) → all layers of the device will be mirrored to the other side. The flip function is also available in the context menu and in the toolbar.

In the library, components must always be drawn on the top side.

5

Thank you for responding on this I wondered what the Flip tools were for.

I did look though the on-line manual but couldn’t see any description of the various editing tools. I even looked through the GitHub issues for any mention of swapping layers. Could some form of toolbar description be added to the on-line manual.

Some of my confusion results from the use of the same symbol icon as that used in the Symbol and Circuit editors; in those the symbol means mirror. Also very similar mirror symbols are also used in other applications. May I put forward the following symbol:
a05745baed75412d9fdb8d3045578ee4