kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On 1/30/2013 4:18 PM, Ryan Sturmer wrote:
> I would be excited to do a cleaned up documentation of these formats.
> Could I get a sense from any developers that are listening, where the
> greatest need is?  (Does it make more sense to start documenting the sch
> library format, the schematic?  the pcb format? etc?)
>
> -R

Ryan,

Thank you for the offer.  The legacy file formats are fairly well 
documented.  There are a few missing pieces and some outdated 
information.  You'll have to dig through the source do get all of the 
required information.  I'm not sure updating the legacy file formats 
since they are going to be replaced.

The board file format was recently changed to a new s-expression style 
syntax that is not documented at all.  Once the footprint library table 
support is finished, the footprint libraries will also be converted to 
use the same format.  I wrote the code for the new board file format and 
I was planning on writing the documentation at some point in future. 
You certainly are welcome to write the documentation.  The file format 
was designed to be human readable so you could probably write most of 
the documentation just by opening a .kicad_pcb file with a text editor 
and reading it.  You can always look at kicad_plugin.cpp for more 
information.

There are also plans to change the schematic and library formats as 
well.  The component library format (call SWEET) is documented and the 
preliminary code was written by Dick.  The documentation for SWEET can 
be found in new/sweet_spec_for_schematic_parts_EN.fodt file in the KiCad 
source.  There is still a lot of work to do to Eeschema before the new 
file formats become the default.  I also have a preliminary document for 
the new schematic file format that I wrote.

Wayne

> On Wed, Jan 30, 2013 at 3:55 PM, Pinault Nicolas
> <nicolas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <mailto:nicolas@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     Le 30/01/2013 21:32, Dick Hollenbeck a écrit :
>
>         On 01/30/2013 01:58 PM, Pinault Nicolas wrote:
>
>             Hi,
>
>             There is a document describing Kicad file formats on bazaar.
>             The last
>             revision is quite old (2011-12-04).
>             Is this document up to date ?
>
>         There are probably two questions to ask here:
>
>         1) Is this document in rev control the newest one available by
>         the same name?
>
>         I don't know.
>
>
>
>         2) Does the newest of this document name address currently used
>         file formats?
>
>         No, there is the "pretty" footprint library format just around
>         the corner, and the
>         *.kicad_pcb board format already in use.
>
>         Neither is documented, a volunteer is needed for that if it is
>         to get done.  It may never
>         get done, since those formats are pretty human readable.
>         Somebody may need to be financially motivated to do it.
>
>
>     I am currently interested in schematic library format. So, I guess I
>     can rely on the document found on Bazaar.
>
>
>
>
>
>             Best regards,
>             Nicolas
>
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> --
> "Please excuse the crudity of this model.  I didn't have time to build
> it to scale or paint it."
>     -Doctor Emmett Brown
> /    Back to the Future/
> /
> /
> Ryan Sturmer
> http://about.me/ryansturmer
> ryansturmer@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:ryansturmer@xxxxxxxxx>
>
>
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