My few thoughts on class D_PAD.
D_PAD class should be also replacement for VIAs(or VIA should be
subclass of
D_PAD instead TRACK) and only container of:
- so many as needed copper shapes(actual simple ones plus closed
berzier, poly
etc.) with LSETs each (no need to differ pads to SMD, STD, CONN, NPTH
etc. those
legacy attributes can be redesigned as some presets) NPTH easily not
contains
any shape. In addition, class MODULE(FOOTPRINT in future?) should include
information on whether an item is SMD or not.
- so many as needed drills. From few oval drills you can combine most of
needed
drill shapes. This has the advantage that you do not need to create an
additional program for CNC milling machines, because everything is
contained in
the drilling file.
Also probably there is no reason for just now to keep D_PAD as MODULE class
sub-element only(both canvases allows direct pad edit). Allowing free pad
placing gives more possibilities in designing boards. 1-pad footprints
are some
non-flexible, archaic way, which causes the necessity to modify the list of
BOM/positions items each time after generating.
