Bob Paddock <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > The BOM should be the master document that populates everything. > > [...] > > Obviously people on this list are dealing with schematics and PCBs, > so we tend to think of the schematic as the "master", > but in the contracting environment the BOM is what rules everything.
Yes, you've hit the nail right on the head! That's exactly how I do it in uEDA, gEDA's evil twin. In uEDA the master source code for a board is an ASCII text file named MCL, which stands for Master Component List. It is not a generated file and it isn't edited by any GUI, instead you create and edit it in vi and source-control it with SCCS/RCS/CVS/pick-your-favourite. The MCL is where you enter footprints, cap & resistor values, orderable part numbers, etc. uEDA has no GUI though, *all* design entry is done in vi. When the uEDA suite is complete, you'll be able to enter your design in vi, then run 'make' and get: * A bundle of M4-generated PCB footprints to hand over to your PCB layout contractor; * Various BOM forms (the MCL is a BOM in itself, but there are other BOM forms too that can be generated from it); * Printable schematics in PostScript; * Netlist file to be loaded into PCB (by you or your layout contractor). The first 2 bullet points are there already, the last 2 aren't there yet. I plan to implement the latter by designing a gschem-like ASCII-based "schematic source code" format, but with one critical difference from the gschem one: instead of attributes in the schematic source file itself, all that information will be taken from the MCL. The complete source code for a board will thus consist of the MCL, the *.usch schematic source files (one per page just like gschem's *.sch) and the Makefile. The MCL and the Makefile form the top-level notion of "project" which some people complain the gEDA suite lacks. MS _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user