kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Martijn Kuipers <martijn.kuipers@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sep 23, 2010, at 13:29 PM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:

> On 9/23/2010 4:12 AM, Martijn Kuipers wrote:
>> 
>> On Sep 23, 2010, at 1:09 AM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>>> symbol - The graphical and/or electrical representation of a component.
>>> Think everything between DRAW/ENDDRAW in the current file format.
>>> 
>>> field - The default and user defined text values that describe a
>>> component such as value, reference designator, footprint, etc.
>>> 
>>> component - The combination of default and user defined fields and a
>>> symbol that get imported into a schematic.
>>> 
>>> library - One or more components along with some meta-data to describe
>>> the library.
>>> 
>> 
>> 
>> When drawing a schematic everything is easy when using components, especially using user-defined libraries. Does this mean that Kicad will ship with a large set of (component-) libraries? Or, will every user need to start creating his own, from symbols (is there a symbol-library foreseen?)? 
> 
> I doubt Kicad will ever ship with a large set of manufacturer specific
> component libraries.  I think the main goal is to provide a quality set of
> generic libraries and hope that as users create more complete component
> libraries that they make them freely available for others use and/or modify.
> Once these libraries mature, they could be added to the list of libraries
> included with Kicad.
That was what I was hoping for.


>  As for symbol only libraries, I'm not sure we will need
> them if we provide copy/paste into the component library editor.
Sounds good.

> 
>> 
>> Will the component-library also have a reference to (default) footprint(s)? Related to this, if a component is available with different footprints are they different components, or the same component with a reference to multiple footprints? If the latter is true, then one could easily choose another footprint in newPCB, for instance.
> 
> I don't see any reason why the footprint field could not used to define wild
> cards for pattern matching or multiple footprints when creating generic
> components such as 7400 or RESISTOR similar to what we have already.  You could
> just as easily create manufacture specific component using the full part number
> as the value field which would be tied to a specific footprint.
Ok.

> 
>> 
>> /Martijn
>> P.S. What is the preferred option regarding the mailing-list. Do I reply to the author and CC the list or just reply to the list (if someone is not subscribed to should then ask to be CC-ed) ? 
> 
> Generally speaking you should reply to the list.  I only email someone directly
> regarding a matter that does not require input from all the Kicad developers.
Done!

Thanks,
Martijn