kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Andrew Seddon <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I can tell you a few key design decisions we made which might help.

- Lib must be cached user side, lack of internet shouldn't stop you
designing. Files work fine, you dont need to invent a new protocol.

- Footprints are defined as code(JavaScript for us). We use a tree based
template system, so you can refactor common elements such as IPC
specifications into base footprints and then derive specific footprints
from the base. This will be exposed to users in a few days so you'll see
exactly how it works and be able to inspect code for templates.

I consider this pretty revolutionary, it's definitely worth stealing ;-)

- When CircuitHub shows you a footprint it tells you why you are seeing it,
i.e "Approved by Chris for this part". In future we are going to implement
trust networks where you can explicitly trust individual
users/organisations and thus see content from those users more prominently.

- The primary GUI should be browser based, resist the urge to bundle
everything into one big monolithic EDA tool. We embrace the Unix philosophy
of small sharp tools that talk to each other.

- A Symbol/Footprint/Part(MPN) must be explicitly tied together. We call
this a Component. Do not allow multiple entities of each type in this
relationship.

That's a few things that come to mind anyway.




On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 7:39 PM, László Monda <laci@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Chris & Andrew,
>
> You're both welcome to publish your findings regarding your design
> decisions.  I believe it'd be worthwile to peer-review and discuss
> different approaches.
>
> I consider CircuitHub the best solution so far.  I think Dropbox
> integration is its best feature but its user interface never seemed
> intuitive to me and I'm not in peace with its basic principle - I
> really think that allowing every user to upload their own libraries is
> a recipe for disaster.  Having 10 different kinds of 74HC595s, half of
> which is broken is not good for anyone.
>
> A powerful and user-friendly parametric library and footrprint
> generator would be so much useful to have.
> http://www.compuphase.com/electronics/kicadlibrarian_en.htm is by far
> the best implementation of this concept.
> http://kicad.rohrbacher.net/quicklib.php also nails the idea even
> though I think its user interface is terrible.
>
> For one-off parts maybe it'd useful to have something like CircuitHub
> but only if there'd be a set of parts approved by librarians
> (administrators of the site).  Without librarians this approach seems
> to lead to chaos.
>
> I'd be interested in developing a web-based library and footprint
> generator eventually and maybe being a librarian by time.  So far I've
> created http://mondalaci.github.io/dxf-to-svg-to-kicad-pcb-converter/
> which solves a different problem but I believe it demonstrates the
> power of a very intuitive web user interface that just works.  This
> could be done for footprints, too.
>
> On Thu, Aug 8, 2013 at 12:35 AM, Chris Morgan <chmorgan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Hi Andrew.
> >
> > Can I email you what I have when it's ready for first review? Then maybe
> we
> > can iterate and discuss as you mentioned? I'd really like to get your
> > feedback before putting anything out for wide distribution.
> >
> > Chris
> >
> >
> >
> > On Aug 7, 2013, at 6:21 PM, Andrew Seddon <andrew@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> > I'd just like to extend an offer I made to Chris.
> >
> > I've been working on a library creation/management solution full time
> for a
> > couple of years now so have a pretty good grasp of the problem. If
> anybody
> > is interested in pursing this I would be happy to take you through the
> > design decisions/trade-offs we made, which might act as a good starting
> > point, and perhaps highlight some of the things that could be done
> > differently (we tried a lot of different stuff). Happy to
> > Skype/Hangout/Phone etc.
> >
> > Cheers
> >
> >
> > On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 9:39 PM, Chris Morgan <chmorgan@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >>
> >> It's good that you mentioned kicadcloud.com, I hadn't spotted that
> >> yet. I did receive email from Andrew @ circuithub and I asked some
> >> questions about API and other details. There may be potential to
> >> collaborate with them on the API.
> >>
> >> I'm putting together a write up of the problem, the possible
> >> online/cloud (although I really think that term is over used) solution
> >> and some implementation ideas. I'll try to follow up here in a few
> >> days once I have something that is enough to be beyond just some guy
> >> sending email to the kicad developers list. My initial email was to
> >> see if anyone else might be on board with the idea and to start to
> >> gather some details before doing all of that extra work.
> >>
> >> Chris
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 3:49 PM, László Monda <laci@xxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >> > Chris,
> >> >
> >> > Not sure whether you've heard of https://circuithub.com/ or
> >> > http://www.kicadcloud.com/ but they're certainly related even though
> >> > none of them seem terribly useful to me at the moment.  Maybe some of
> >> > these sites expose some webservice APIs - Could be a good way to
> >> > start.
> >> >
> >> > On Wed, Aug 7, 2013 at 1:40 AM, Chris Morgan <chmorgan@xxxxxxxxx>
> wrote:
> >> >> Hello.
> >> >>
> >> >> Sites like http://www.kicadlib.org/ are great for sharing libraries
> >> >> but I was thinking that having integrated online library sharing
> could
> >> >> better distribute the work while making it easier to share and use
> >> >> parts. A user could add add trusted sources to their remote
> libraries,
> >> >> contribute new parts, vote on parts etc.
> >> >>
> >> >> Thoughts? It would probably take a bit of effort to spec out and
> >> >> implement things, I was thinking of an indiegogo or kickstarter
> >> >> approach to fund the work.
> >> >>
> >> >> Chris
> >> >>
> >> >> _______________________________________________
> >> >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> >> >> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> >> >> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > László Monda <http://monda.hu>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> >> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> >> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > --
> > Andrew Seddon
> > Co-founder CircuitHub
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> > Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> > More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> > Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> > More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
> >
>
>
>
> --
> László Monda <http://monda.hu>
>



-- 
--
Andrew Seddon
Co-founder CircuitHub