kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 18/03/2015 16:06, Maciej Sumiński a écrit :
> The new wizard is ready, available either as a patch (attached to
> this message) or in a Github repository [1].
> 
> It is not in the product branch yet, as I wanted to have a few 
> confirmations that it works on some other machines than mine, 
> particularly on Mac OS X platform.
> 
> The patch also removes Webkit and dialog_select_dirlist_base. I do
> not want to remove it arbitrarily, but with the permission of the
> author(s).
> 
> Regards, Orson
> 
> 1.
> https://github.com/orsonmmz/kicad-source-mirror/tree/fplib-wizard

Good work!
Thanks to you, Orson a Tomasz

It looks fine on W7, but I have some remarks:

1 - the proposed nickname contains the file or directory extension.
The current convention is to use the basic name (without extension).
Footprint names should not be sensible to the type of plugin.
(currently, keeping the extension breaks the existing components to fp
links)

2 - From my point of view the way environment variables are used is
wrong: the KIPRJMOD is always used, and full paths are made relative
to this path.
I am thinking the 2 env vars can be used only when the full path
*starts by* one of these 2 defined paths.
In other words they can be used for paths which are a subpath of the
defined paths.
(Keep in mind as soon as the env vars dialog editor is available, more
paths are also available)
If this is not the case, the full path must be used (using a env vars
has no sense if the library is not in the defined path).

3 - An important feature of the "old" wizard is the ability to
download libs from Github, and make a local copy (or update this local
copy)
Please do not forget this feature: it is especially important for new
users.
For most of users, working directly with on-line libraries is not good
(noticeable time to download, mainly each time you run CvPcb, no
control of changes ... )
So Github libs should be seen like the "Vault" of Altium.

It could be a third option in the main page of the wizard like
"download kicad libs and make local copy" or a separate dialog or wizard.
About fp libs, some associated 3D fp lib shapes (now folders with
.3dshapes extension) have to be downloaded.
They are too big to be used online, and should be copied locally to
the KISYS3DMOD when you are using a new kicad footprint library.
They are currently on:
https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-library/tree/master/modules/packages3d
and the wizard must have an option to download select 3d libs, like
the option to download/use .pretty libs.

This is especially important for newbies, but also other users.

Again, thanks to you.

(PS: you can delete the now not used webview folder)

-- 
Jean-Pierre CHARRAS