kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@...>]

I added the via export support to the specctra_export.

defined: "stock" via:
a via defined outside a netclass in the arbitrary via list found
in the global design rule window.


For stock vias which are defined with drills of zero, these are exported as
such, with drills of zeros. I have not tested the ramifications of those
vias being used in freerouter and then being back imported. I think 
some minor work
is needed here, and I think we have to agree what it means if a stock 
via's drill is
zero in the back import. Is this now used instead of -1, and a zero 
points to netclass Default's drill value or to the Netclass of the net 
in which the "zero drill" via is used.
Some testing of the back import is needed in this regard, and maybe some 
minor
code tweaking, but probably not more than a line or two of code to fix 
it up.



The ability to use Freerouter from Kicad in a vastly improved capacity 
is within reach now.


I would say PCAD vendors and the like might actually be impacted 
financially by Kicad & Freerouter in the near future, because this combo 
of Kicad & Freerouter is no longer serving just the needs of the 
hobbyist world.

This is my limited opinion of an industry that I do not know intimately...

And I am being very careful to include Freerouter in my guestimations, 
because its routing capability drastically exceeds that in Kicad. It is 
the combo that is becoming a powerhouse.


Dick