kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Andy Peters <devel@xxxxxxxxx>]

> On Jun 22, 2015, at 1:24 PM, Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx> wrote:
> 
> On 22.06.2015 19:47, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
>> On 6/22/2015 1:45 PM, Andy Peters wrote:
>>> 
>>>> On Jun 22, 2015, at 8:58 AM, Tomasz Wlostowski <tomasz.wlostowski@xxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> Hi,
>>>> 
>>>> One of the biggest annoyances of Kicad (to me) was the PCB forward
>>>> annotation process. The attached patch set attempts to improve this by
>>>> adding an "Update PCB From schematics" option in eeschema when Kicad is
>>>> open in Project Manager mode. The way it works is:
>>>> - press F9 (or select Tools->Update PCB From Schematics) in eeschema
>>>> - a window with changes to be applied to PCB will appear
>>>> - you can check for errors/warnings/review what is going to be change
>>>> - click "Perform PCB update" or press Enter to proceed (or cancel).
>>>> - netlist updates can be undone (Ctrl-Z restores PCB state after wrong
>>>> netlist load).
>>> 
>>> I like this a lot, and I think this will go a long way towards stopping the bitching and moaning by various people on various forums who for whatever reason think it’s too many steps to export a netlist from eeschema and then import it into pcbnew.
>> 
>> Are you willing to bet any money that the bitching and moaning will stop? :)
>> 
> Guys,
> 
> I wrote this patch upset by the amount of recent bitching and moaning in
> the web, so the the first person to ask "why this way and not another"
> received my whole anger.
> 
> @Nick, I owe you my apologies. Concerning your question, putting
> "update" feature in the schematic editor (and not in PCB) just seemed
> more logical (which pretty much falls into 'I like it this way'
> category) - after all you first draw the schematic, then design the PCB.
> I'm not opposed to having the same in PCBnew as long as it stays in the
> schematic editor too.

For what it’s worth, and not to say that Kicad should emulate everything they do, but Altium has the “Design -> Update PCB Document” menu item in the schematic editor, and “Design -> Import Changes from XX.PrjPCB” in the layout editor.

But I am with Tom. in AD I always update the layout from the schematic, and not the other way around, because I always edit the schematic to make design changes, not the layout. But if the button is in both places, that’s fine, and should satisfy everyone. 

Note the weasel word “should,” because there are those who suggest that the layout be automagically updated up each new addition to the schematic, or at least upon each schematic save.

(Ultiboard did something horrifying, which was if you deleted a footprint from the layout, it also deleted the associated symbol from the schematic, and in an undo-able fashion, too!)


> We should start a moan&groan hall of fame, maybe accompanied with a
> 'feature for the best/funnist/most ridiculous moan' program.
> 
> Reading the EEVblog forum, my current favourite is:
> 
> "What I don't understand is why CERN is investing in KiCAD.
> Why not just pay for a known working commercial product, and redirect
> the software engineers wages back to physicists?”

The answer to that question is “He who controls the spice controls the universe.”

Or maybe something a whole lot less evil.

Seriously, though, in the category of “most ridiculous moans” is the one that goes “Kicad needs to have a foundation that can fund the development,” yet there’s some wag who says that an organization willing to fund the development should instead get back it its core mission while misunderstanding the full scope of that core mission.

Party on,
-a