place_component builds Reference and Value fields without the library's layer, thickness or keep-upright

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Assessment

Difficulty
3/5
Estimated time
Half a day
Newbie friendliness
55/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
rust
Domain
cli, tooling

Research direction

The bug is in KiCadIpcClient::build_footprint_item and its text_field closure in crates/konnect-ipc/src/client.rs, which set only position, size and angle and leave the rest of TextAttributes at defaults. Compare against the sync path the issue cites (mixelpixx/Konnect#820) for how layer, visibility, thickness, line spacing and keep-upright are set. Done when a place_component result saved with KiCad 10 shows the library's Reference and Value field attributes.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

bug

Imported from mixelpixx/Konnect#971, opened by pauliuszaleckas on 2026-10-24. The original repository is archived.

Summary

place_component (live IPC path) builds a footprint's Reference and Value fields without the library's text. On a stock Capacitor_SMD:C_0603_1608Metric, KiCad saves the placed fields with (unlocked yes), no font thickness and (line_spacing 0). The Value field is also hidden and on F.SilkS, though the library has it visible on F.Fab.

mixelpixx/Konnect#789 noted this in a comment ("place_component builds footprints the same way and has the same field defects … I'll keep the function shared and leave adopting it there as a follow-up"), and mixelpixx/Konnect#820 fixes the sync only. This issue tracks that follow-up.

Reproduction

main @ 9488e5f plus the stroke fix for mixelpixx/Konnect#970 (it doesn't touch fields), KiCad 10.0.6 pcbnew under a headless Weston, on a 2-layer scratch board:

  1. place_component {board, footprint: "Capacitor_SMD:C_0603_1608Metric", reference: "C11", x: 20, y: 30, rotation: 180} → source: "ipc".
  2. save_project.

The saved fields (UUIDs removed):

(property "Reference" "C11"
	(at 0 -1.43 0)
	(unlocked yes)
	(layer "F.SilkS")
	(effects (font (size 1 1) (line_spacing 0)))
)
(property "Value" "C_0603_1608Metric"
	(at 0 1.43 0)
	(unlocked yes)
	(layer "F.SilkS")
	(hide yes)
	(effects (font (size 1 1) (line_spacing 0)))
)

The library's (/usr/share/kicad/footprints/Capacitor_SMD.pretty/C_0603_1608Metric.kicad_mod):

(property "Reference" "REF**" (at 0 -1.43 0) (layer "F.SilkS")
	(effects (font (size 1 1) (thickness 0.15))))
(property "Value" "C_0603_1608Metric" (at 0 1.43 0) (layer "F.Fab")
	(effects (font (size 1 1) (thickness 0.15))))

Cause

KiCadIpcClient::build_footprint_item's text_field closure (crates/konnect-ipc/src/client.rs) sets only position, a fixed size of 1 mm and the angle. The rest of TextAttributes comes from ..Default::default(): keep_upright: false (saved as (unlocked yes)), no stroke_width, line_spacing: 0. The layer is forced to F.SilkS/B.SilkS, and the Value field is created invisible. IpcFieldPlacement carries only each field's at.

Ask

Give place_component's Reference and Value fields the library's layer, visibility, font size, thickness, line spacing, justification and keep-upright, as mixelpixx/Konnect#820 does for the sync. A thin-stroke Reference also fails a min_text_thickness DRC rule (see mixelpixx/Konnect#967).

Dominant language
Rust
Stars
34
Forks
9
Avg merge
9h 26m
Merged PRs (30d)
226

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