kicad-developers team mailing list archive

["Tim Hanson" <tim@...>]

okok sorry. I'll try to state it another way. Perhaps I am doing something
wrong with sheets? (that the software already does? (i hope))

Say I have two .sch files in my design. call them dsp and adc.
one dsp hooks up to 4 adc sheets, hence there are 4 adc.sch rectangles in
dsp.sch

I want to annotate (assign component references to) the capacitors,
integrated circuits and stuff in both .sch files. However, one .sch file
makes 4 sheets, so I cannot save the component references for all of them.

This means when I turn off my computer at night, start up the next day, I
have to re-annotate, otherwise there will be duplicated component
references (read in from adc.sch). Now, if i re-annotate and am partially
done with a layout, everything will be all confused because the component
references will change in the schematic.

Hypothetically, I can make a whole bunch of files, adc_1.sch adc_2.sch 
...etc. Then have to edit each (of 16, in one case) if (when!) I realize
I've made a mistake. not elegant.

does this make sense??

thanks for your input, and merry christmas!

> Huh?
>
> Your mere use of the work "instantiate" suggests that there is a
> fundamental mis-understanding of the principal purpose of the SHEET
> paradigm.
>
> Beyond that I cannot comment because I do not understand what you need
> vs. what the software currently does. Elaborate for me please if you
> really want an opinion from me.
>
> I am not feeling real smart right now so if you can dumb it down that
> would help.
>
>
> Thanks,
>
> Dick
>
>> Hi,
>>
>> So, Ive looked at the code a bit, and it seems that each time a sheet is
>> found while reading in a file, it loads the sheet DrawStruct, and later
>> fills out the sheet's EEDrawList by reading in the sheet's filename.
>> Hence, the class SCH_SCREEN is the basis of the sheet hierarchy. There
>> is
>> a new instance of the sheet per DrawStruct.
>>
>> To allow multiple hierarchal instantiations of the same schematic sheet,
>> it makes sense to replace these many instantiations with references to a
>> single sheet. The only way different instantiations of a given sheet
>> differ is in their component references (C202 etc), so I propose that
>> instead of a single entries in the component reference field, there
>> should be an array. This array should be indexed by the sheet reference
>> number, and the array should be saved when saving the schematic sheet.
>> Hence, the file specification will have to change a small bit.
>>
>> Now, if the sheet DrawStruct is duplicated, then users cannot have
>> varying
>> interfaces to it -- this part has to be different, as the location has
>> to
>> be different on the parent shematic. It is the EEDrawlist & sheet that
>> should be the same, so that if you edit one all of them change.
>>
>> I can't think of many other ways of doing it, other than enforcing a
>> component ref offset per sheet instantiation (like 1000, so that the
>> first
>> instantiation of adc.sch has caps labeled C1001, C1002 .. etc & the
>> second
>> instantiation C2001 ...). But this is kludgy.
>>
>> Of course, once a present hierarchal schematic is loaded into memory,
>> you
>> can annotate all components and get a valid netlist from which to layout
>> a
>> board. The problem is, if you go back and, say, add a component to the
>> ROOT sheet, then subsequent annotations of the hierarchy will be
>> conflicting, and you cannot go back and forth between schematic and
>> layout. bad, no?
>>
>> Tim
>>
>>
>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> I have a schematic with the following hierarchy:
>>> {root}
>>> -{16 channel mod}
>>> -- {4 channel ADC}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> -- {4 channel ADC}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> -- {4 channel ADC}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> -- {4 channel ADC}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>> --- {2 channel filter}
>>>
>>> e.g. the 2-channel filtering is instantiated 8 times for the 16
>>> channels.
>>> The problem is that it only saves the component references for *one* of
>>> these schematics, so that when I reload, I have to re-annotate the
>>> entire
>>> schematic. While the thing is in memory, this is fine, since it seems
>>> each instantiation is separate & i can do DRC etc. But this will not
>>> be
>>> good when I move to layout - the components need to have stable
>>> references.
>>>
>>> How should this be done?
>>>
>>> I'm happy to code it up, just want some input.
>>>
>>> Also, is anyone else annoyed when, also in eeschema, you delete a long
>>> straight line, and instead of the deletion terminating at the next node
>>> or
>>> intersection, it deletes *everything*. This frequently forces me to
>>> redo
>>> long lines.. worth a fix?
>>>
>>> thanks yall,
>>> Tim
>>>
>>> ps. I've been noticing that each SVN revision makes kicad appreciably
>>> better - good job everybdy!
>>>
>>>
>
>