Reduce SVG rect fill-opacity

[psychogenic]

Setting opacity of layers to something a little less than 100% would help get a view of what's going on.
The smart thing might be to have a gradient -- bottom layers higher opacity than upper layers.
Here I've got the poly at 100%, contact at 0.7 and metal at 0.5, for example

[mattvenn]

like this one a lot

[urish]

I'll create a branch with opacity settings per layer so you could experiment with this

[urish]

Layer opacity prototype: https://layer-opacity.siliwiz.pages.dev/

Set metal1 opacity to 0.5. You can change the opacity for other layers in https://github.com/wokwi/siliwiz/blob/layer-opacity/src/model/layerTypes.ts#L143 - just add an opacity property, similar to the one metal1 has.

[urish]

rebased the PoC branch for this feature of top of the current version

[WallieEverest]

Up vote for this feature. KiCad and others do this very well.

[mbalestrini]

I've made some tests regarding layers opacity and visual obstruction. I'm not sure if having transparency by default might confurse someone who just started learning, so that is why I also tested drawing some borders around layers so you know something is behind. I also tested layer highlighting when you move the mouse over the layer list

https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/2311128/224172989-b41c7cda-c0b1-4ce2-95cc-6d8e74b9d6f6.mp4

I put the checkboxes to the two options in the bottom of the page to be able to test them myself (one at a time or both together), but maybe having it as an optional function might work for the user also (more experience users will enable see through layers?)

you can test the interactive version in gitpod: https://gitpod.io/#https://github.com/mbalestrini/siliwiz/tree/test_layers_drawing (some things like selection/popup menu are not working)

[mattvenn]

I like the borders for extra help in seeing that there are additional layers. The transparent, I'm not sure how helpful it is. It's nice but to me it adds a bit of confusion.

How about we leave the default as it is, but add those 2 buttons under the main drawing window:

[urish]

Thanks @mbalestrini ! Are you able to come up with a pull request for this (moving the toggle just below the graph, as Matt suggested)?

[mbalestrini]

Thanks @mbalestrini ! Are you able to come up with a pull request for this (moving the toggle just below the graph, as Matt suggested)?

I'll work on that.

what about the changes in the color palette and the layer highlight on rollver @mattvenn ? should I add those things to the pull request too?

[mattvenn]

Sorry for the slow response both. Yes put it all in one PR