kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Brian Sidebotham <brian.sidebotham@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 14 December 2010 22:49, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I made some ,inor changes to clarify inherited vs base part and changed
> LPID names reflect local naming convention as suggested by Dick.
>
> Wayne
>
> On 12/14/2010 9:39 AM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>> I know all of you've been on the edge of your seats waiting for the the new
>> part file format since Dick announced his plans to start working on the
>> distributed library.  So without further ado, attached is the preliminary copy
>> of the library part file specification.  Please take a look at it and make sure
>> I didn't forget anything.  I have tried to accommodate all of the previous
>> library discussions as best I could.  If I missed something, it wasn't
>> intentional so please let me know so I can revise the specification.
>>
>> Initially, I would like keep the discussion focused on what is missing and how
>> it should be implemented.  Please keep the discussion on semantics like "I
>> would rather use thickness instead of line_width" until after we've hammered
>> out all of the technical issues.
>>
>> Once we have a consensus, I will convert the document into a more formal format
>> similar to the current file specification documents and commit it to the
>> documentation repo since that is were the rest of Kicad's documentation resides.
>>
>> I know it's been a long time coming so thank you for your patience.
>>
>> Wayne

Hi Wayne,

I just got a look through the doc. I have a few questions/observations for you:

(1) If I browsed a library for a part which contains all of the parts
information below the line:
# This is an example of a dual input NAND gate A of a 7400.
in the document, does this mean that I would see all of the parts for
selection? i.e. dual_input_nand_a, dual_input_nand_b,
dual_input_nand_c, dual_input_nand_d, dual_input_nand_demorgan_a,
dual_input_nand_demorgan_b, dual_input_nand_demorgan_c,
dual_input_nand_demorgan_d, 7400, 74LS00, and SN74HCT00NSR

I would have thought there would need to be a way in the syntax of
showing what was a selectable/finished part and what was merely a
"symbol" or partial part which should not be allowed to be entered
into the schematic directly.

Ah, actually, I see you might be using the value field for this
purpose. Only values are selectable parts perhaps?

(2) I could see a pin rename function being handy. At the moment it is
possible to delete a pin and then add a new pin in, but this would
mean re-defining all of the other pin properties.

(pin_rename NUMBER NAME)

Another method might be to have overriding of pin attributes. For example:

(part “dual_input_nand_a”
  (reference “U”)
  (pin input line (at -600 100 180)
    (name “” (font (size 60 60)) (visible yes))
    (number “1” (font (size 60 60)) (visible yes))
    (visible yes))
)

(part “dual_input_nand_b” inherits “dual_in_nand_a/rev1”
  (pin_del 7)
  (pin_del 14)
  (pin_renum 1 4)
  (pin_renum 2 5)
  (pin_renum 3 6)
  (pin (number "4") (name "D"))
  (pin (number "5") (name "E"))
  (pin (number "6") (name "F"))
)

Perhaps this is something already envisaged?
It will be useful for people who use micro with an inordinate amount
of peripherals multiplexed to the IO pins. It is much better to just
include the intended peripheral in the pin name as opposed to trying
to list all of the peripherals on that pin, or just the port name.
This could be done in a project specific library.

Thanks for everyone's efforts in taking on the big changes, it'll make
things so much better for KiCad and the S-Expression format is really
nice to read so I'm sure it'll be very popular.

Best Regards,

Brian.