kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Karl Schmidt <karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> I am very deep into it now.  Will work full time until it is done.  I
> recognize that the concepts are important, and the intent of the patch
> is important and useful.
>
> I am heading down this road, clarifying and extending some of the
> original concepts as I go:
>
>
> 1) Fieldnames are to be considered either Default or Wanted.  We don't
> have that distinction even with the [original] patch.  I define a Wanted
> fieldname as one that you want for every symbol, that is not a default
> fieldname.  A default fieldname is one that Kicad supplies after a
> pristine install of Kicad (you have not specified any Wanted
> fieldnames).  A Wanted fieldname must always be shown when editing
> symbol properties, regardless of whether you received symbols from
> another Kicad user that had all the optional fieldnames filled with some
> of his own Wanted fieldnames.  Your Wanted fieldnames do not trump his,
> they simply *must be* added to the end.  (Your "wants" should be
> granted.  But please limit the context of the previous sentence.)   I
> don't believe the [original] patch can handle this.
>
>
> 2) Wanted Fieldnames are to be recorded in a way so that they can be
> referenced when editing symbols, or instantiating symbols, across all
> projects as provided for by patch (not project or schematic specific,
> but rather user specific).  However they should also bring with them the
> *initial visibility* choice.  Often Wanted fieldnames like "Vendor",
> "Manufacturer", "Cost" or "Installed" (e.g. value=DNS) are not to be
> visible.  Yes you can override the default on any instantation of a
> symbol.  But we can save users another mouse click times the number of
> invisible fields, times the number of instantiated symbols by holding
> this attribute with the config file saved Wanted Fieldnames.
>
>
> In summary:
>
>
> 1)  Default != Wanted.
>
> I am reverting the notion of Default to what it was previous to patch.
>
>
> 2) I think I have this clear in my mind, and am working actively NOW to
> implement it, spilling into Monday at least.  (Although it is pretty
> nice outside right now....may go for swim first.)

Thanks for working on this ..

There is more than one way to deal with this - I can think of a distributed Default template that 
gets edited/configured by the user with both field names and default values for the field names.

Creating a well thought out default list would make sharing part libraries more useful. A list of 
fields I use that might be of value to you for creating a Kicad skeleton (default) :

(all invisible)
Description such as "Hex inverting buffer 5V"
manu1 - company name - intel
manu1#  That companies part number
manu2 - second source company name
manu2#
Vendor1 first vendor
Price
Notes



The other issue this brings up is the /component properties/description tab - with:
Description, keywords, and Docfilename

Should these really be separate from the 'fields properties'?  Or at lease be available for a BOM 
dump?  Should field names be case sensitive?

( I also thought it might be nice to have multiple docfilenames - I've been joining PDFs to deal 
with it - so probably not a priority right now.. )





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Karl Schmidt                                  EMail Karl@xxxxxxxxxxxx
Transtronics, Inc.                              WEB http://xtronics.com
3209 West 9th Street                             Ph (785) 841-3089
Lawrence, KS 66049                              FAX (785) 841-0434

When the government tries to do something;
half the time it accomplishes the opposite,
the other 49% of the time it produces a negative consequence
that is worse than the problem they set out to solve. -kps

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