kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Dick Hollenbeck <dick@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/30/2012 12:23 PM, Richard Howlett wrote:
> Thanks Dick for taking the time to look at this.
>
> I thought that the "Append Board" might have been a planned way of 
> dealing with hierarchy that just wasn't fully implemented.  Now, I'm 
> guessing it for stepping multiple boards to export into gerber to 
> exploit full PCB panels?
>
> I'm poking around KiCad but I can't seem to find anything that 
> references Board fragment.  I think I get what you are saying.  In some 
> ways this approach is how I've dealt with this in the past, but it's 
> always been kind of a kludge (by hand, and very time consuming).  Plus 
> the Module Editor doesn't deal in traces, just pads.  If I could save a 
> PCB as a Module this might get me part of the way.  Then, its like you 
> say, just adding modules.  The only hiccup I see is the naming of the 
> internal nets, it would seem they would need some type of unique name 
> (hidden names in a component with no connect declarations so the 
> netlister assigns the names, oh the list just keeps getting longer...)
>
> *) Points of connections are just pads and traces, I can't think of any 
> thing else.
>
> *) So a Module would need some minimum set of verification such as width 
> and clearance DRCs, but it should be ok for connectivity to have opens 
> as long as the pads or traces are open for routing (this can be part of 
> someone's master plan to do this at a higher level, ie GND), thus it 
> should be a warning and not an error.
>
> *) It seems if the PCB could save schematics artwork as a Module, and 
> there were a simple path for a Schematic to save as Component (with some 
> type of link to the original schematic) this would be an acceptable and, 
> I might add, good solution.  I don't know the code well enough to say if 
> this is easy but I have plans to start really digging into it next 
> year. 

To actually achieve this, one would need a use case description (written spec), then a
software design.   After that, in theory, coding it is like cutting a down a few trees
without a chainsaw, only a handsaw.  Less thinking, mostly grinding.

But it is definitely a longer term perspective, and tantamount to envisioning a garage
from a pile of lumber.   The pile may only look like a garage to a framer.

If I were to spend any more time on it, then I would be funding it.  And it is too big a
task without outside funding.