kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>]

On 06/04/2013 09:44 PM, NHays Terrace wrote:
> If pcbnew had direct support for rectangle flash objects outside of
> modules, the mapping would be simple.
Hi Nate,

IMHO, adding new types of copper objects may be tricky - aside from just 
drawing, you need to take care of DRC, hit testing, dragging, plotting, 
printing and so on to make the new entity fully supported... Even now, 
Kicad has no for arcs on copper layers (because of missing 
arc-to-everything-else clearance check).

> Alternatively, the exporter could build a zone for each flash.
This seems easier in short term, especially if it's a seldom used 
function (and not performance critical). Do you need it for panelization?

> In general, pcbnew’s drawing object set is fairly specific to pcb
> related objects which limits expansion.
With the new graphics API, you will be able to define custom VIEW_ITEMs 
to draw user-defined objects.

> Generic grouping of objects is another common component of graphics
> programs.
>
> I would like to <ctl> click objects to select several of them, then
> r-click and select ‘group’.
>
> Then I can move them as a unit – extremely useful.

I would say that before this happens, pcbnew needs a general capability 
of selecting one or more objects (see point 12 - 
http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki/WorkPackages) and a more 
generic drag&drop tool. This is probably the hard part, if it's well 
designed, adding object groups should be easy.

Regards,
Tom