kicad-developers team mailing list archive

["�vind Aabling" <Oyvind.Aabling@xxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 20 Apr 2011, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:

> What scripts?
>
> > The script (pcblibs, a perl script) and
> > its associated code is in the perl subdir.
> >
> > See perl/README on how to invoke the script (it requires some
> > perl modules, located in perl/PCB, to be built first), and see
> > perl/README.pcblibs for an explanation of the code structure.
> >
> > The kicadlibs.tgz file contains the resulting
> > modules and wrl files, but not the code.
> >
> > I'll add a code.tgz (or something) containing the
> > code on the next revision, for easier download.
> >
> > Øyvind.
>
>
> Thanks for clarifying.  (I wouldn't know a perl from a mushroom.)

Well, I would have thought that was easy - mushrooms have funny shapes,
some of them are poisonous (and the cloud variety is unhealty in
quite another way), whereas a pe(a)rl is nice, round and shiny ;-)

> Amazing work Øyvind.   Thanks for sharing it.

Thanks :-)

I've been idling (on kicad) for a while, but there'll probably
be more modules coming RSN, and some additions to existing ones.

I've begun taking my own medicine (using kicad and my module collection),
so I've noticed that some component descriptions (the Cd attribute in
.mdc) are missing vital info, and I'm also missing some component types.

As an example, QFNs needs to list the body and thermal pad sizes,
as there are several varieties with the same pin count and pitch.

I'll try to find some time to also add a variety of trimmers (R and C),
and bipolar axial capacitors - I need some of those myself anyway :-)


BTW: In cvpcb, the Cd info is shared with the Footprints count on the
bottom line, leaving very little room (unless you maximize the window).

A full (or even multi) line for the component description would be useful ...


I've also begun playing around with SMD components - =&"#$ they're small ...

I think that some (most?) of you remove (or at least hide) the
ref and value fields on small components (SMD chip and similar
sized SMDs), as these texts are way larger than the outline,
but I think they're nice to have while laying out the board.

I've thought about reducing the size of the ref and value texts (at
least to half size, maybe more ?), for SMD chip and other small SMDs.

Another possibility could be to reduce the texts so much
that they'll fit (sort of) within the component outline,
making them visible when zooming in on the board.
This would avoid cluttering the area around the component,
which could easily be occupied by other components.
This would of course make the texts useless for the
silkscreen on the actual board, but if they're removed
anyway due to lack of board space, it doesn't really matter ...

Any opinions on this ?

> Dick

Øyvind.

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