kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/25/2010 1:01 AM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> On 09/24/2010 01:14 PM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>>
>> On 9/24/2010 10:35 AM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
>>   
>>> On 09/24/2010 08:59 AM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
>>>     
>>>> On 09/24/2010 03:41 AM, Lorenzo Marcantonio wrote:
>>>>   
>>>>       
>>>>> On Fri, 24 Sep 2010, Martijn Kuipers wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>   
>>>>>     
>>>>>         
>>>>>> I would be very happy with an export function, doing: Export all used components into a project library.
>>>>>> This way I can send the schematics on to the next person and (s)he can adjust where needed, without having to look for some components/footprint differences.
>>>>>> Of course, its export, so the component would still live in the system library to be re-used.
>>>>>>     
>>>>>>       
>>>>>>           
>> <<< snipped >>>
>>
>>   
>>> Then if you give EESCHEMA the ability to treat any previously designed
>>> schematic as a library source for a new schematic (remembering that a
>>> parts list is a library that exists within a schematic), you can pull
>>> from one parts list into a new one, using drag and drop also.  If you
>>> want to extend this to the extreme, you can eventually do away with
>>> library files in total and only have one file format, schematics.  This
>>> extension is a separate optional design decision obviously.  You could
>>> also do this and hide it by giving the libraries a different file
>>> extention, but the formats could be identical.  Library files would not
>>> need to have any component instantiations or wires.
>>>     
>> This is an interesting concept.  I was thinking about embedding the library in
>> the schematic instead of a separate library file when you suggested a separate
>> project library file.  I actually like this concept better.  The only down side
>> I see is that it requires implementing the schematic structure to support this
>> at the same time which may be too big of a change to implement in a reasonable
>> time frame.  We could implement the component library first and design in the
>> capability to embed libraries into other files as part of the library
>> structure.  Then we could repeat this same exercise for the schematic structure
>> and make the library to schematic transition then.
>>
>> Wayne
>>   
> 
> If we're basing the new library file on s-expression (aka DSN like) and
> using richio concepts, I don't think it is hard to assume that that
> makes loading and saving pretty much context free and relocatable, i.e.
> nestable.  It should be easy to extend the library file to include
> sheets, wires, instantiated components, and desired parts list columns,
> and after all that, call it a new schematic format.

I was planning on making the library file an s-expression using richio.
 I didn't even consider anything else.
> 
> And if need be a new branch can be started to do any of this work, to
> avoid exposing folks to a phase where the program is not usable.  As
> always, I see the rate limiting problem being one of qualified
> man-hours, and who gets to donate them.

Once this discussion dies down, I'll put together a bullet list summary
and publish the new file format document.  Once that is fleshed out,
I'll start working on it.  I am more than happy to push my dev branch to
launchpad if anyone else is interested in helping.  I was thinking of
using using conditional compilation to enable/disable reading and
writing the new file format until the code is to keep the code base in a
reasonably usable state.

Wayne

> 
> Dick
> 
> 
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