kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>]

On 11.07.2014 19:20, Dick Hollenbeck wrote:
> In any case I think the CERN roadmap description for back annotation is over designed.
> There are simpler ways to handle this than the ECO described in that writeup.
>
>
> I would recommend that this item be scrapped and simplified.
Dick,

I assume you meant the blueprint from the official Kicad roadmap (done 
by Wayne):

--- snip ----
- Provide forward and back annotation between the schematic and board 
editors.
- Define netlist file format changes required to handle pin/part swapping.
- Update netlist file formatter and parser to handle file format changes.
- Develop a netlist comparison engine that will produce a netlist diff 
that can be passed between the schematic and board editors.
- Create pin/part swap dialog to manipulate swappable pins and parts.
- Add support to handle net label back annotation changes.
---- snip ----

Remember that whatever forward/back-annotation mechanism will be 
implemented, it will have to handle:
- pin/part/differential pair swapping
- attribute annotation - take a microwave design as an example: the 
parameters of a microstrip line/circulator/whatever_else inputted on the 
PCB should be transferable back to the schematic (and the other way around).

Our proposal is just about comparing two netlists. Usability of such 
tool would not be only limited to PCB<>schematic annotation. Think of 
tracking changes between different versions of the design and 
visualizing them in a human-understandable way.

Regards,
Tom