kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Oct 2, 2015 at 8:23 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

> On 10/1/2015 5:03 PM, Cirilo Bernardo wrote:
>
[snip]

> > Changes so far which can cause problems:
> > schematic symbols:
> > + many changed size and the location of connection points
> > + Diodes were made consistent so K is always Pin 1 (which I think should
> > have
> >    been the case even for THT since K is the marked pin)
> > + Orientations may have changed
> >
> > footprints:
> > + (0,0) reference for THT components has changed; I'm not familiar at
> > all with
> >    the orientation of SMT footprints so I can't say if they've changed,
> > but some
> >    rules were put in place to ensure a consistent orientation. I suspect
> > the (0,0)
> >    position remains the 'center of body' since that's what's required by
> > placing
> >    machines, but I haven't been following the changes.
>
> Has anyone checked if the position files are correct for THT footprints
> with the pin 1 reference points at 0,0?  If this breaks user's position
> files used for pick & place, this is *really* bad and I would consider
> this a potential stable release blocker.  Someone needs to confirm this
> so we can make a decision.
>
> > + Orientation has changed for many THT components
> >
> > VRML models:
> > + many have changed orientation
> > + many have changed (0,0,0)
>
> I would prefer that the orientation and scaling match footprint so the
> user doesn't have to change anything by default.  In other words, the
> scaling is always 1 and the offsets and rotation angles are always 0.
>
>
I think we would all prefer that, and for VRML models sculpted by users
there is no excuse to have anything different. My VRML modeling tools
have a simplistic tool to reorient/resize/reposition a model and batch
scripts can be written to fix any Wings3D exports (or models from other
sources). For MCAD sources however (IGES, STEP) it's a bit trickier.
Ideally we would have the MCAD and its original native data and re-export
the IGES or STEP file to conform to what KiCad expects, but this is an
unrealistic case. For IGES I can write a tool to repackage a model with a
correction applied to the position and orientation, but I don't see this
happening until at least the middle of 2016; similar tools would be needed
to tweak any other 3D formats which we support in the future.

- Cirilo

[snip]