kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 11/14/2012 9:48 AM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> I guess the other thing to keep in mind is that there are no plans to delete the
> LEGACY_PLUGIN.  PLUGINs are responsible for
> 
> 
> a) loading and saving BOARDs.
> 
> b) using footprint libraries in a particular storage format.
> 
> 
> Technically, we do not even have to convert our current libraries to the new format.  The
> library table support will allow you to co-mingle libraries of the two formats seemlessly.
> 
> 
> 1) After that, with a half day's work you will also be able to simply read Eagle version 6
> footprints in their native format also, no file format conversion necessary.
> 
> 
> This is the PLUGIN design showing its stuff.
> 
> 
> 2) We could use one for Geda footprints also.
> 
> 
> 3) There has been some work done on Orcad footprint libraries already.

Dick,

Is this one of the branches on Launchpad and if so which one?  This is
something that could be very useful for me as Orcad 10 is what I have at
work so I have plenty of custom footprints in this format that I would
like to convert over to KiCad.

> 
> 
> A volunteer is needed for 2).  We can import a geda footprint now, but that code might be
> better served to inside a PLUGIN.

I've been looking over the Geda footprint import code and I think it
would be fairly straight forward to port it over to a PLUGIN.  I will
volunteer to do at least this much.  That way we have a unified method
for importing footprint libraries when we go live with the footprint
table code.  I've never used the Geda footprint import code before so I
cannot attest to it's usefulness or quality.  Does anyone know how well
this code works so I can avoid any pitfalls?  Please note this will only
support reading Geda footprint libraries.  Writing footprint libraries,
reading board layouts, and/or writing board layouts is not something I
would find very useful so I will leave this as an exercise for someone
who needs this capability.

Wayne