kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jean-pierre charras <jean-pierre.charras@...>]

Dick Hollenbeck a écrit :
> Jean-Pierre,
>
>
> How about this protocol:
>
>
> If I put an item in the todo.txt file, that means I am *not* working on it.
>
> Otherwise, please assume that I am capable of dealing with whatever I am 
> working on, unless I ask for your help.
Ok.
So, the todo list must have infos like the changelog file, i.e.:
2007-Nov-2 TODO Jack Smith <JSmith@...>
================================================================================
todo list.

Must we have a "work_in_progress" list, because sometimes, we must 
synchronise the work ?
(I believe a powerfull and modern zone support will request a lot of 
work and collaboration).

> There is too much to do and too few man-hours for you to be 
> micro-managing little issues like this. You cannot do it all, you need 
> the help of folks like Geoff and me.
I agree with you.
> Maybe other developers aren't as sensitive to this, but I am. Think of 
> me as a BIG hammer, not a little hammer. I may have been born at night, 
> but not last night.
I understand what you mean.
And you way of coding shows you are born some nights ago.
> More importantly, how is the zone support going?
I am thinking about this, but i have currently no precise idea on this, 
only questions.
I had a look at geda (and its board editor, PCB), and the zone support 
in PCB.
I noticed the zones are handled as polygons.
The gerber files use filled polygons, with no holes (like Geoff said, 
polygons with holes must not used in gerber)
When a polygon has a hole, it is drawn as 2 (or more) adjacent sub 
polygons with no hole ( the adjacent edges
are around the hole)
But the PCB code as only very few comments, and requires some work to be 
understood.
And i must play with PCB because i do not found how to remove copper 
zone under the tracks
(in my first try, pads where correctly handled but the copper pour 
covers all the existing tracks)

Before starting coding we must have a good idea on some important subjects:
- How to handle zones and non filled areas within a zone (Of course 
polygons are a great approach)
- How to draw a zone on screen (The PCB code can help us).
In some board editors i have seen, I believe the filled polygon is 
drawn off screen (in a memory dc for instance)
and after the non filled zones and and board items (tracks, pads) with 
the clearance value added to the items size are drawn in black in the 
polygon,
and after the result is copied on screen, like a mas.
Is it a better (and faster) way ?
- I have no idea about a trick to remove ( after creating the zone, and 
on the fly after creating a new track ) the dead copper
- I have no idea about algorithms used to draw the zone, with no holes 
in gerber format. but i hope the PCB code can help us.
- And perhaps, we must found algorithms to detect overlapping zones, for 
DRC controls.

Of course, we can use the current way used by pcbnew to handle zones, 
with some improvements to edit and save egdes zone,
but i think the polygon approach is a more powerfull approach.

However i planned to release the current kicad version ASAP (next week 
for a release candidate) because the current version is rather good.
So the bug hunting is the priority (and during this time thinking about 
zones is the priority) .

After we can start large changes on zone handling (when some ansvers 
will be found about these problems).


--

Jean-Pierre CHARRAS

Maître de conférences
Directeur d'études 2ieme année.
Génie Electrique et Informatique Industrielle 2
Institut Universitaire de Technologie 1 de Grenoble
BP 67, 38402 St Martin d'Heres Cedex

Recherche :
GIPSA-LIS - INPG
46, Avenue Félix Viallet
38031 Grenoble cedex