gEDA-user: Foss-pcb Proposed plan from CERN
I'm swamped. CERN might come up with tip money for developers. Anyone have the time to be in a committee? John Griessen Original Message Subject: [Fwd: Proposed plan] Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:24:46 +0200 From: Javier Serrano javier.serr...@cern.ch To: John Griessen j...@industromatic.com Hi John, Would you like to join this discussion? Cheers, Javier Forwarded Message From: Javier Serrano javier.serr...@cern.ch To: foss-...@ohwr.org Subject: Proposed plan Date: Mon, 22 Aug 2011 01:00:14 +0200 Dear all, As most of you know, the purpose of this mailing list is to propose a roadmap to bring FOSS PCB design tools to a level of quality and features comparable with other non-open options. I think it would make sense to split this effort in three phases: 1. Make a list of features for the ultimate PCB design tool. 2. Discuss current FOSS projects and (hopefully) pick one which can evolve into what we define in phase 1. 3. Generate work package descriptions to have the project selected in phase 2 cover all items of phase 1. I would keep track of the results of discussion in http://www.ohwr.org/projects/ohr-meta/wiki/Foss-pcb If all this takes place in the coming month or so, then the work package list can be published and advertised in a number of fora (the OH workshop in October, FSCONS...) so that potential contributors can pick one WP and start working. If you have any suggestions or remarks concerning this plan, let's discuss them here. Otherwise, I propose we move straight away into phase 1. I am looking forward to many interesting discussions with all of you. Cheers! Javier -- Ecosensory 1218 W 39th St. Austin TX 78756 ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Layer button backgrounds - summary
On Sat, 20 Aug 2011 08:09:37 -0700 Andrew Poelstra as...@sfu.ca wrote: On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 01:46:24PM -0700, Steven Michalske wrote: On Aug 19, 2011, at 1:39 PM, Vanessa Ezekowitz wrote: On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 12:41:58PM -0400, DJ Delorie wrote: [...] Though, I am still unsure how to indicate that the last 4 layers can't be used for drawing. Put the item names in parenthesis. A little padlock icon is universal as a locked thingy. I will play with this idea. Probably I can fit a small padlock onto the bottom-right corner of the swatches. How clear this will be from a user perspective, I will not know until I try it. I'm wondering if users will think the padlock icon should function as a button to toggle the “locked” state of a layer, as in the GIMP. In this case, the layer is not so much locked as it is a “virtual” layer that is computed based on other data. Perhaps italicized text would be enough to at least indicate there is something special about those layers. Regards, Colin ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: Layers and Buried/Blind Vias in gEDA
Hello all, While following the discussion about layers, I wondered if the capability to handle buried/blind vias could be implemented in gEDA. I would think that not only a buried/blind via should know which layers it spans, but also each layer should be aware which layer it is above. While submitting gEDA layouts to Sunstone Circuits, I was asked about layer mapping (and I presume that other PCB fab houses have similar requirements). I think that if I interchange two inner layers when declaring the mapping of gerber files to actual layers, the board will still come out alright (although its EMC performance may be compromised) because the vias span all physical layers. That might NOT be the case if buried/blind vias were used because (inner) layer transposition may disturb the continuity of a buried /blind via. (The outer layers cannot be interchanged with other layers because physical components are soldered on them.) I thought that discussing buried/blind vias in gEDA is very much related to the lively discussion about layers. Regards, Gus Fantanas ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Has anyone in this group seriously used KiCAD?
On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 4:43 PM, Colin D Bennett [1]co...@gibibit.com wrote: On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:55:31 -0400 John Hudak [2]jjhu...@gmail.com wrote: Pros/cons? and please, no philosphy about integrated vs independent tools...I am interested in aspects such as what things work? what doesn't? user experiences such as strengths and weakness (again actual/functional and not philosophy) I've not seriously used it, but I was just today frustrated when I tried to download and open the Maple Mini KiCad project ([1]) and my KiCad version (from Ubuntu 11.04 repositories) says the layout and schematic files are unrecognized types. More specifically, trying to open the .brd file says Unknown file type and trying to open the schematic says file.sch is NOT an EESchema file! See screenshot at [2]. A version incompatibility? Maybe, but you would hope KiCad would at least tell the user that the file is the wrong version, rather than such cryptic errors. User error? Maybe, but how hard can it be to open a board file or schematic file? Oh another note, I like how gEDA puts its symbols and footprints in separate files -- it is great for version control and for browsing/searching with standard file management tools or directly on a GitHub repository view, etc. Regards, Colin References -- [1] Maple Mini schematics and layout [3]https://github.com/leaflabs/maplemini. [2] Screen shots of attempting to open Maple Mini schematic with KiCad. [4]http://gibibit.com/upload/2011-08-19_KiCad_MapleMini_error.png ___ geda-user mailing list [5]geda-user@moria.seul.org [6]http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user Oh another note, I like how gEDA puts its symbols and footprints in separate files -- it is great for version control and for browsing/searching with standard file management tools or directly on a GitHub repository view, etc. So does KiCAD, separate files for symbols and footprints. -J References 1. mailto:co...@gibibit.com 2. mailto:jjhu...@gmail.com 3. https://github.com/leaflabs/maplemini 4. http://gibibit.com/upload/2011-08-19_KiCad_MapleMini_error.png 5. mailto:geda-user@moria.seul.org 6. http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Layer button backgrounds - summary
Steven Michalske wrote: Put the item names in parenthesis. A little padlock icon is universal as a locked thingy. (name) can mean anything.. A lock can mislead, too. Locking implies the ability to be unlocked. I like the parenthesis proposal. (And I generally dislike tiny icons. They tend to look like a random batch of pixels if the resolution is not that good ;-) ---)kaimartin(--- -- Kai-Martin Knaak Email: k...@familieknaak.de http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x6C0B9F53 not happy with moderation of geda-user ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Layer button backgrounds - summary
Andrew Poelstra wrote: This might work. So might coloring the text. But this has the same problem as putting text in parentheses: at first glance, this visual indicator might mean -anything-. At first glane a lock means something that is not the case here. Pins/pads, farside and mask are not unlockable. I doubt, that this is any better for newbie initiation. What we need to do with the treeview/swatch widget, is to indicate that the swatch still works for toggling visibility, but you can't actually select the layer for drawing. Complex relationships cannot be indicated by simple graphical means. What can easily be done, is an optical hint that these layers do not belong to the same class as the upper layers. Simply add some separating space between them. Tiny icons add to visual clutter and should only be used for compelling reasons. I don't see such a compelling reason here. ---)kaimartin(--- -- Kai-Martin Knaak Email: k...@familieknaak.de http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x6C0B9F53 not happy with moderation of geda-user ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Commandline option --menu-file
Andrew Poelstra wrote: The gtk gui needs to be completely revamped. There are many individual things to be done, but we don't have enough developers to get to them all soon. If the number of active devs is the reason for stagnation, then a plan to foster future developer generations should be a priority. Any activity in that direction? IMHO, positive feedback is the one, most influetial aspect. After all, contributers don't do it for any material profit. Getting patches into geda projects as a user prooved to be a steep uphill battle in the past. Patches were rotting in the BTS until they did not apply gracefully anymore. Has this changed significantly? Regardings the GUI: Are there were clearly formulated goals somewhere on the webpage? Goal, that need not be discussesd if someone comes up with a patch. If there, is it properly linked to? I for one would not invest days or weeks of spare time if I have reason to believe that the devs are happy with the current state of the GUI. ---)kaimartin(--- -- Kai-Martin Knaak Email: k...@familieknaak.de http://pool.sks-keyservers.net:11371/pks/lookup?search=0x6C0B9F53 not happy with moderation of geda-user ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: Shadows for selected symbols?
As you may know some time ago I had the idea of using shadow effects for highlighting of selected symbols in schematics. I put a picture on my page: http://www.ssalewski.de/PetEd.html.en (Picture may be too large for the page, you may have to use something like show picture in your browser to get a clear view.) I am using shadow, lighter color and thicker lines when elements are selected or the mouse pointer hovers over it. The effect is additive, strongest result when pointer hovers over an already selected element. It looks fine when zoomed in, but unfortunately it is not very easy to find all selected elements when the display is small. The largest disadvantage is, that we are limited with useful colors. What I like is the clamping of lower linewidth, and the ability to move elements without the need of first selecting it. Best wishes, Stefan Salewski ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: pcb segmentation fault
I am using version 1.99z that I compiled a few days ago If I press control-r while the mouse is over a component name I get a segmentation fault Richard ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: slotting question
I think I'm doing something dumb. I've never used gschem's slotting functionality before; I've always drawn my schematics with the entire package. But I'm trying it now, it's doing something unexpected, and I'm sure it's just me doing something wrong. I open up a new schematic, place two instances of 7404-1, edit the attributes of the second one, promote the slot attribute, edit the newly-accessible one, change it to 2, save it, save the sheet, exit gschem, restart, and load the sheet. My inverter symbols have now been replaced with entire package (i.e., 14-pin rectangular) 7404 symbols. I can't imagine this being the expected behavior. What did I do wrong? Can someone slap me with the great fish of clue? Thanks, -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: Preventing elements from appearing in BOM
Is there a way to prevent a device from appearing in the BOM and in the XYRS file? The problem I'm trying to solve is that I have a pin defined in my schematic for attaching a wire to the PCB. There is no actual device to be installed. In order to get the pin to show up on PCB's rat's nest, I defined a dummy device with a hole for a footprint. This allows the rat's nest to show that there's something that needs to be added to the PCB layout. The problem now is that the dummy device shows up in the BOM and is also being placed in the gerber XYRS file. So the question is how do I get the hole to be recognized by the rat's nest on PCB, but get omitted from the BOM and the XYRS exports? I've also noticed that the BOM generated by the export function of PCB is showing the device's footprint rather than the device name for the description. Is this correct? ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Has anyone in this group seriously used KiCAD?
2011/8/20 Colin D Bennett co...@gibibit.com: On Fri, 19 Aug 2011 11:55:31 -0400 John Hudak jjhu...@gmail.com wrote: Pros/cons? and please, no philosphy about integrated vs independent tools...I am interested in aspects such as what things work? what doesn't? user experiences such as strengths and weakness (again actual/functional and not philosophy) I've not “seriously” used it, but I was just today frustrated when I tried to download and open the Maple Mini KiCad project ([1]) and my KiCad version (from Ubuntu 11.04 repositories) says the layout and schematic files are unrecognized types. More specifically, trying to open the .brd file says “Unknown file type” and trying to open the schematic says “file.sch is NOT an EESchema file!” See screenshot at [2]. A version incompatibility? Maybe, but you would hope KiCad would at least tell the user that the file is the wrong version, rather than such cryptic errors. User error? Maybe, but how hard can it be to open a board file or schematic file? The Maple Mini was not designed with KiCAD, it was designed with Eagle. -- Best regards, Atommann ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: pcb segmentation fault
I am using version 1.99z that I compiled a few days ago If I press control-r while the mouse is over a component name I get a segmentation fault Richard ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Layer button backgrounds - summary
On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 04:41:05PM +0200, Kai-Martin Knaak wrote: Complex relationships cannot be indicated by simple graphical means. What can easily be done, is an optical hint that these layers do not belong to the same class as the upper layers. Simply add some separating space between them. Sounds like this is the general consensus. I will add a separator and italicize these layers. The swatch will work, but clicking to select will do nothing. -- Andrew Poelstra Email: asp11 at sfu.ca OR apoelstra at wpsoftware.net Web: http://www.wpsoftware.net/andrew/ ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: pcb segmentation fault
On Sat, Aug 20, 2011 at 08:04:03AM -0500, kqt4a...@comcast.net wrote: I am using version 1.99z that I compiled a few days ago If I press control-r while the mouse is over a component name I get a segmentation fault What kind of component? What does git log -1 show? -- Andrew Poelstra Email: asp11 at sfu.ca OR apoelstra at wpsoftware.net Web: http://www.wpsoftware.net/andrew/ ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
