kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:

> It would be helpful if you could provide a source for the format
> specification in your source code work, either an http link or and
> address of a place where somebody else can acquire the spec if they need
> to.  Thanks.

Trouble is that it wasn't easy to find until a while ago and that's a *legacy* format...
I found it with google on a russian forum here:

http://www.google.it/url?sa=t&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CBUQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Felectronix.ru%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Fact%3DAttach%26type%3Dpost%26id%3D15091&ei=FIstTKaYHaeTOIe61OwB&usg=AFQjCNHndhkYRkdh_ceQc9fdPIj3-DlW7g&sig2=nbbWh91YRIuZrRekvwNocQ

(just search for: gencad file format)

The *other* thing is that every importer is different, it seems... the
previous exporter did legally use a user unit (in native kicad 1/10000
inch units) and without the padstack section (perfectly legal), but both
our partners (pcb makers and ATE) rejected them... orcad layout choked
on it too.

Also a *lot* of gencad attributes are freeform, while some parsers only
wants /some/ of the /suggested/ strings as value! Example: the INSERT
attribute declares what kind of pick and place machine should be used,
like TH, SMD, DIP, SIP, ... and OTHER.

It seems that the only universally accepted value is SMD, because some
parser wants TH while some other one wants OTHER for THT components...

It's a crazy industry :D

--
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl