kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>]

On 18.09.2014 23:16, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> On 9/18/2014 4:42 PM, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
> > ----- Original Message -----
> >
> > > From: Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx>
> > > To: Kicad Developers <kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> > > Cc:
> > > Sent: Friday, September 19, 2014 2:04 AM
> > > Subject: [Kicad-developers] P&S plans for the near future
> > [snip]
> > > I'd also like to add support for arcs on copper layers (for efficient
> > > representation of miters/meanders). Contrary to the current graphical
> > > arc object, I'd propose to approximate them using line segments (and
> > > store as such approximations) so that there's no need to add full arc
> > > support (for plotter/DRC/etc). What do you think?
> >
> >
> > Hi Tom,
> >
> >   For the arcs I think ideally we should use real arcs; if line segments
> > are used then we need to be able to specify some dimensional constraint
> > so that the arcs appear smooth. It's only a wishlist item though since
> > the DRC around arcs would be a challenge. One potential issue of using
> > line segments is that a design can end up with very many segments in a
> > single arc and these segments can be accidentally dragged or deleted.
> >
> > - Cirilo
>
> At some point we should consider supporting arcs but from what I
> understand implementing arc support in gerber files is very difficult.
> Although I haven't really looked at it.  I'm just going by what I have
> heard discussed in the past.

Hi again,

That's why I proposed to use a piecewise approximation instead of ideal 
arcs (in the case of Gerber output, it will produce a number of segments 
instead of a real arc).

Tom