kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

> From: Carl Poirier <carl.poirier.2@xxxxxxxxx>
>To: KiCad Developers <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> 
>Sent: Saturday, April 19, 2014 11:15 AM
>Subject: [Kicad-developers] Library Convention
> 
>
>
>Hi developers,
>
[snip]
>
>1. Is a device that's made by many manufacturers and sold in tubes, tapes or trays always in the same orientation?
No.

>2. For automatic insertion of THT components, where should the origin point be put? Jean-Paul Louis was saying to me it should be on pad 1, so is it always the case?
>
No.

These are not really issues for the EDA; they are issues to be discussed with the PCB manufacturers. For the orientation of SMT devices, use one of the existing standards; you can even use a standard package orientation when the actual manufacturer does not place the pins according to the standard. The pick/place machines don't care about pin numbering, only about fiducial marks on the board and component orientation in the tray/whatever.

Creating numerous orientations of footprints will only confuse matters.

For THT, once again any orientation issues should be discussed with the specific manufacturer. The THT world is even worse than the SMT world; at least for SMT there are (multiple) standards even though in many cases the standards are not followed.

- Cirilo