kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 12/11/2012 1:26 PM, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> On 12/11/2012 11:54 AM, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> Uncle Charlie was working on that.  I will ask him about it.  Its been awhile since we've
> talked.
> 
> 
> 
>>
>>>
>>> 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.
> 
> 
> Cool.  Go for it.
> 
> If you want, there is also about only an hour or so to add EAGLE_PLUGIN::FootprintLoad(). 
> You'd just have to factor what is already there to expose footprints rather than loading
> the board.  There seems to be only one kind of file in Eagle 6, for everything:
> schematics, board, footprints.  Find the footprints and return one.  Part of that is being
> done already.  It's cake, I did the hard part.

It may happen at a later time and date but I'll add it to my to do list.