kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Attila Kinali <attila@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 31 Aug 2015 15:23:02 +0000
Mário Luzeiro <mrluzeiro@xxxxx> wrote:

> I just give an quick overlook on that, I think one thing was not mentioned
> was the consistency on the edition of parameters.
> (For example the way that you insert a value of some type (ex a diameter, or
> a position) is different depending of the function/dialog.)
> One thing that maybe kicad could also implement is a "parameter table" 
> edition. I saw already some EDAs that implement it that way, also, it is easy 
> to first develop a table or tree and just enter manually the values.
> Something like this:
> http://fossies.org/linux/wxWidgets/docs/doxygen/images/appear-propertygrid-gtk.png
> 
> It is not very "user (good looking) friendly" but for other advanced users 
> can be a faster way to edit the options. (Also, it should be easier to match 
> an options table and create a configuration table ui automatically )

Yes, the preferences dialog of Kicad is not optimal. But i could not come
up with a good way how to change that and formulate it in a short way.
I think, if even half of the other things get fixed, that would be already
quite good. Things like preference dialogs and constiency among tools
take a lot more time and effort to fix properly.

That said, if you have access to Altium, that is one of my favorites of
a good preferences system. One thing they did is a graphical representation
of the parameters like in 
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ABjz0C7Ctho/U_z7hRUv3pI/AAAAAAAADpI/S1cRFDOW5X4/s1600/ScreenShot130.png

Another thing is that all "set preferences for X" menu items jump into the
same big preferences dialog (see tree on the left side of the picture above),
just at different points in the tree. But for the "change quickly the via
parameters for this track" you get a pop-up with only that setting
(e.g. http://documentation.circuitmaker.com/sites/default/files/wiki_attachments/237536/Via_PCB-dlgs_CM.png )

			Attila Kinali



-- 
It is upon moral qualities that a society is ultimately founded. All 
the prosperity and technological sophistication in the world is of no 
use without that foundation.
                 -- Miss Matheson, The Diamond Age, Neil Stephenson