kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 08:49:27PM +0200, jean-pierre charras wrote:
> For instance, vias with multiple holes could be very helpful.
> Most of time, this is what users need: not really many vias, but just many holes.
> 
> Vias with multiple holes could be a via with a suitable shape ( square, rectangle or oval, like a segment),
> just a via having the room for more than one hole.
> 
> The advantage is this feature does not break the current code,
> and is more easy to code than stitching zones (by far).
> DRC already handle this kind of shape.
> A via with multiple hole is very near a group of vias, with no problem for moving, deleting, placing ... it.

More or less like the via module I'm using... how could the user define such a thing? there is nothing in the current UI to handle something like that; I'm thinking to the use case...

Something like the add zone interaction IMHO would be fine:

- Tool button 'via group'
- Click on the via positions you want
- Right button: end group, undo add via (if you make a mistake)

For editing, just like moving zone corners:

- Right button on a via: move via, delete via, delete via group

Maybe some via group properties? Like tenting or something like that. And the netlist to associate to (so the DRC, zone filler and cleanup are happy); seems reasonable since I don't think a case where such via group would not be for a 'named' net... as you said the DRC and other routines could handle them like pads in modules so nothing *too* complex to add.

With this kind of interaction a user which know how to add a zone should have no problem using via groups.

Have I forgot something?

-- 
Lorenzo Marcantonio
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