kicad-developers team mailing list archive

["Frank Bennett" <bennett78@...>]

--- In kicad-devel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx, Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...> wrote:
>
> 
> > and enable an export netlist from pcbnew.
> >   
> 
> 
> This is not more than 20 lines of code to add.  
> 
> 
> 1) Why do we need it? i..e. what PCBNEW operations do you suspect
would 
> modify/damage the netlist from its original definition?

Some PCB packages allow the user to manually add/modify Tracks,
like pcbnew does and then by connectivity they become either a
new net or part of an existing one. The netlist export would be 
an additional DRC method to verify the user didn't break the golden
netlist input.
A netlist compare utility would be needed to compare the export
to the golden input. Manual trace modifications in general are
risky and should be avoided IMHO.

My observation is that pcbnew doesn't tag which net each track 
corresponds to.

My experience with PCB123 ECOs or revisions was that changing
the schematic and importing a new netlist was not sufficient.
PCB123 did seem to get delete/add of nets and module adds correct
but not module deletes. I need to review pcbnew's ratsnest code
and ECO stategy.

> 
> 2) what text format would it be in?
Pick the "standard" pcbnew input format.
> 
> 3) Who would use it?
See above.
> 
> 4) When would someone use it?
See above

Frank
> 
> 
> Dick
>