kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Some (mostly) trival observation from new users (I'm proselitizing :D),
regarding the netlist dialog in pcbnew (it seems to be voted as the most
obscure dialog in kicad):

- For the 'module selection' option is RTFM time (i.e. nobody has an
  idea of how that works); I agree and that's an exotic option anyway,
  so I think it's a non issue.

- Module name source: myself I have no idea of why should be necessary
  to select the source... there are worse problem if the netlist and the
  cmp file mismatchs (but at least we got rid of the backannotation
  file). I hope the plan for the future is to keep the netlist only
  (what is the usefulness of the cmp file other than not having to pull
  netlist code in cvpcb?)

- Exchange/delete extra/delete track mostly clear for everyone

- The 'only report changes in message panel' is the most misunderstood
  option of all: I fell on that, too:D the intended meaning is 'only
  report changes (but don't actually change anything)' i.e. a dry run
  switch: it's actually useful since it works as a netlist compare (will
  work even better when netnames are stable). However most people got it
  as a 'tell me only stuff different from before, but change it anyway'.
  Maybe a better label would be useful

- The 'open netlist' had a better name in the past IIRC... people
  wonder why doesn't happen anything :P maybe 'select netlist' or
  'browse for netlist' would be better ('open' has a more active
  connotation). In fact the file chooser caption is 'select netlist'!

- The rebuild button is another RTFM item :D in fact I only had to use
  it for reasons untied to netlist processing... maybe it would be
  stand better in the cleanup panel?

- Personally I find the confirmation for each reread annoying...
  consider that other cads boasts about automatic netlist transfer; just
  like the annotate dialog maybe a just-do-it-and-shut-up permanent
  option would be useful.

-- 
Lorenzo Marcantonio
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