kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Lorenzo Marcantonio wrote:
> On Wed, 12 May 2010, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
>
> > Creating a summarizing, concise statement of what the problem is 
> > would be good, and should be the next thing we do.  I think it should 
> > be easy to think of some possible solution ideas / alternatives, once 
> > the problem is fully defined.  Then somebody needs to volunteer to 
> > code it.  I would consider volunteering for it, depending on what we 
> > come up with.
>
> Well, what you're asking is reasonable after all :P
>
> The problem is from following the following workflow, which is the
> recommended one in the docs, btw:
>
> 1) Create a master source board file and populate it with modules;
>
> 2) Use it to create a library with the 'Archive modules' file command.
>
> It is interesting that I never used any of the 'library' commands in the
> module editor, since I'm supposed to edit the master source board,
> right?
>
> OK. Now for the use case:
>
> 1) I create a new module in the master board, and call it WRONG-NAME;

Help me understand this step 1) please.  What steps exactly are you 
using to create a module, or do you mean instantiate a module from a 
library?


> 2) For whatever reason I decide that this name is wrong, I want to call
> him RIGHT-NAME;

Why do you care?  What are the consequences of a wrong module name, 
especially one that is not particularly visible?

The module name serves as a description of source or origin.    If you 
change the description of origin, you lose the ability to go back and 
"update modules in your board" from a modified library origin of the 
same name.


> 3) Intuitively, since there is no footprint name around, I change his
> reference (edit module or edit field); it's wrong but it's the only
> thing that make sense now :P
>
> 4) Create the library with the 'archive modules' command
>
> ==> I have a library with a 'WRONG-NAME' module using a 'RIGHT-NAME'
> default reference :(
>
> That's the problem statement... how we can solve it?
>
> - A read only box showing the footprint name is cheap and useful for
>   a number of reason, anyway, so I'd put it in right now;
>
> The IMHO easiest way is to put in the module properties in the module
> editor a way to rename it... since as you said all the module data is
> copied back and forth between the board and the module editor, you
> change the footprint name in the module editor, click 'update module in
> board' and the new footprint name would be transferred to the master
> copy, right?
>
> But then why not make the footprint name an editable field in the module
> property in the board editor itself? The 'change module' button does in
> fact do something very similar, I reckon... after all the footprint name
> isn't used for anything else since there is no shared data between
> modules...