kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Vesa Solonen <vsolonen@...>]

ma, 2009-10-05 kello 23:35 +0000, Mateusz kirjoitti:
> 
> I would like to discuss about Vesa's questions
> 
> > and I'm also eager to take 'project librarian' position on best
> effort
> 
> You have my vote! If it is taken into consideration ;)

I'm delighted to see that I've got accepted by you and Dick. I had such
a feeling already as no loud opposition surfaced before ;) You guys did
a nice ride sideways to web based library system and finally converged
back to the topic. I almost got worried for a while. Anyway, ideas are
fine, but we need to lay foundations first.

> > *Official symbol drawing guidelines with sizes and line widths.
> 
> http://users.tkk.fi/~vsolonen/kicad/Symbol_guidelines.txt - it is
> good! But what about rules for drawing ICs?

IC part is a bit tricky, but I think it should use 'Outline' and 'Pin'
class lines (at leas) and use 2DU corner to pin distance. Otherwise DU
pin separation and 2DU or more between 'groups of pins'.

I'd like to get opinions how difficult it would be to implement such a
line class system to eeschema library format and the parser. Is there
anything else to add in on the same run to minimise changes? Finally it
is up to implementer as usual, but this feature would make Kicad stand
up from anything else by dynamic styling.

> I am always wondering what is the best way of pin positioning (eg.
> grouping it due to role -> data, vcc, gnd together or just putting
> them as they are in the package).

General purpose stuff should use functional grouping, but special
purpose like TDA1572 could even use physical layout. This needs some
case by case judging.

> > *Discussion how to organise the library tree and possible
> sub-branches.
> 
> I think that we should organize the tree due to manufacturer names
> with some exceptions ( sometimes the chip is produced by more than one
> company see 74xx, some memories, connectors etc.).

> > *Library and component naming policy
> 
> see above ...

I agree. The link I sent in the start had quite usable naming for pcbnew
libraries and that's also very important to solve.

> > *Library licenses allowed.
> 
> Sorry, but I am not good in licenses ;(

The point is that Kicad must not end being another Eagle Lite with
commercial restrictions. Not on the library either. For every
contributor there should be authors file and changelog file entry and
that should be all author needs for bragging rights ;) No ridiculous
demands that $MYNAME is included on silkscreen layer... Some form of rip
up protection may be needed. The particular license is up to discussion.
I haven't yet studied the subject.

> The truth is that the library tree now is a tragedy! (I am using kicad
> 20080825c from kubuntu 9.04 repository) 
> 
> Just look on "device" library. It is full of everything but what
> schotky diode and mosfet has in common with speaker, jumper and bnc
> connector?
> 
> Or why microcontrollers.lib is 90% duplicate of microchip.lib?
> 
> Don't you think it should be fixed by somebody?

That's what I'm making noise of :) Graphical tools for library
reordering would be very nice, btw... I haven't yet decided how to do
the task, but at least the task is clear.

-Vesa