kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Brian Sidebotham <brian.sidebotham@...>]

2009/2/26 Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>:
> Is our file format for the menu choice "Post Process" | "Generate
> Modules Position" any kind of standard?  (The *.pos files.)  Are people
> relying on this file format to adhere to some standard?  If it is our
> own format, then I would ask why we need a separate file for each side
> of the board.  We have the column which says which layer the component
> is on, and I would prefer that there only be one file, not one for each
> side.   The column is redundant or the 2nd file is redundant.
>
> The nice thing about having a single file is it makes it easier to do a
> diff on the files generated from two revisions of the board.  This can
> reduce the amount of work involved in reprogramming a pick and place
> machine as a result of a board spin.
>
> What are others' thoughts?
>
> Dick

I do not believe it to be a standard, we use the data after we have
modified it in an .xls sheet.

It would also seem like the output is only ever imperial too, and not
selectable. I tried selecting the PCBNEW units to metric and then
writing the position files, but it still gets generated as imperial
units. Almost unbelievably (to me!) the programmer for our machine
requests the data in metric and not imperial units.

We do not use double sided component stuffing here so have no
experience of whether two files are better than one, or vice-versa.

Best Regards,

Brian.