kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 04/08/2012 11:38 AM, lajos kamocsay wrote:
> Hi Wayne-
>
>
> The new file format looks awesome. Very simple and readable.
>
> Would it be possible to standardize the transformation data? Currently
> there seems to be a couple different formats, some examples:
>
>  (draw line (pts xy(76.581 47.9425) xy(77.724 47.9425)) (layer 21)
> (width 0.127))
>
>  (size 1.016 1.651)
>
>  (at -1.524 0)
>
>  (at (xyz 0 0 0))
>  (scale (xyz 0.17 0.16 0.16))
>  (rotate (xyz 0 0 0))
>
> I think having a standard format would be very helpful for external
> utilities reading/writing kicad data, like:


Without diminishing your point about standardization, I suggest that Miquel's scripting
interface will soon be the recommended way to write "external tools".

And as such, folks writing directly to the KiCad file formats will be missing the point of
the scripting API, so they will not get any of my attention, at least.

Back to the transformation data, we have both 3d and 2d transforms, and it would be
sensible to allow them to be different.  Also, the SWEET parser is already written, works
on 2d transform data, and I assume Wayne took that into consideration.  Changing the 2d
SWEET stuff is something I would not embrace easily. 

I am not taking such a position on this new BOARD format yet however, but rather keeping
an open mind.  However, achieving some 2d transform similarly between SWEET and BOARD
might have at least some value.


Dick