kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jean-pierre charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 12/03/2012 18:23, Element Green a écrit :
>
<...>
> Thanks for the information on the layers browser.  As you described, I see how a lot of the layer functionality in my wish list
> could indeed be implemented with the current widget.  I'll shoot for adding desired functionality to the existing objects.
>
> I made an honest effort to add location and size information for basic shapes.  In the process of testing it out, I experienced
> some of what Jean-Pierre was hinting at.  That some shapes can be more complex and determining what size the user wants to see can
> be difficult.  For example, I clicked on a circular spot pad on a ground pour and got the size of the pad plus a ring around it
> where the thermal traces connect it.  This could give the user unexpected results, since the area around the pad, wouldn't
> normally be thought of as being part of the size of the pad shape.  For other layers which don't contain a pour, it is very useful
> though for determining size and location of circles, spots, lines, ovals, etc.  Seems like resolving issues like that would
> require a good overview of Gerber geometric primitives and what would be considered as visually part of a shape and what is not,
> something which I currently do not have.

Because in some cases the size (and sometimes the location) is not easy to evaluate, perhaps you should display them for "simple" 
shapes, and display a message like "complex aperture" or "not defined size" instead of the size value, when the size cannot be 
easily evaluated.

Gerber macros are sometimes very complex, but most of time, basic shapes or basic aperture macros are used.


> One other thing I noticed, was that shapes on non visible layers still show up when clicking on the Gerber view display.  It seems
> like non visible layers should not be included in the target hit search.  Would you guys agree?

Non visible layers (images?) should not be included in the target hit search.
For non visible shapes this is an open question, and this is related to one of tricky Gerber features.


> I've attached a patch to this email for comment.  It would be nice to see something like this merged into the official source code
> (so I don't keep having to patch my local copy ;-)  I admit though, it is not perfect.  Some additional notes about this patch:  I
> changed the "Graphic Layer" information label to just "Layer" to free up some space on the status area.  I also wasn't sure the
> best way to add the two support functions DisplayPosition and DisplayValue, which are really local to GERBER_DRAW_ITEM and
> probably not so useful outside of the DisplayInfo method.  Currently they are part of the public interface.

I am thinking 2 other important parameters (in Gerber format) should be shown:
- the DCode value for objects having a DCode or an equivalent info for other objects (like object type = polygon)
- how it is drawn (flashed , drawn as line, or polygon object)

> Please let me know if I should be utilizing some other subsystem (like the bug tracker) for getting feedback on this patch.
>
> Best regards,
> Element Green


--
Jean-Pierre CHARRAS