kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo.bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

The "eeschema-plugin" is a very large rework of eeschema which will include
a change in the file format. You can be sure the legacy schematic format
will be supported (via the "plugin") so if you're working on a schematic +
pcb import which has compatible net lists so that you can simply translate
an Eagle project and continue design work then it's OK to use the current
schematic file format; in fact a well-designed translator would make it
trivial to add support for exporting to the newer format when the eeschema
plugin  work is finished. From my point of view such a translator needs to
be a stand-alone application because kicad doesn't currently have a
convenient accessible framework which would allow access to both schematic
and pcb data at the same time.

The launchpad blueprints are largely ignored; anyone can post and people
essentially post wishlist items and run away; the vast majority don't have
any intention of doing any actual work on the code. The blueprint
"export-import-expand-supported-files" is one such wishlist item.

The blueprint "eeschema-plugin" has been planned by Wayne for a long time
and he's currently working on that. For a more sensible list there is a
development roadmap in the Documentation directory of the source:

https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-source-mirror/blob/master/Documentation/development/road-map.md

There is also another list by the folks at CERN:

http://www.ohwr.org/projects/cern-kicad/wiki/WorkPackages

- Cirilo


On Thu, Sep 1, 2016 at 2:08 AM, Michael Svetlik <m.svetlik@xxxxxx> wrote:

> My background, first.
>
> Over the last years, I designed a bunch of EDA projects using light Eagle.
> After a system collapse and a new Kubuntu install, I decided to not again
> beg for that limited eagle software, but instead go to KiCad - which was a
> good choice, thanks and respect to the developers.
>   But I didn't want to draw all the sheets and boards once more, so I
> looked around for a conversion tool. On github, I found one from
> Mr.Lachlan, but: eagle has died, I can't process ULP's any more. I took the
> code and analyzed the logic in it AFAP, then wrote the schematic converter
> in C. But here, I got stuck with some (maybe trivial) knowledge lack, i.e.
> 'What is a part? And, what is a unit?'. Hoping to find the answers in code
> (and a little support from the wise men), I joined here.
>
> Looking for issues related to import stuff, I fell over two articles:
> *https://blueprints.launchpad.net/kicad/+spec/export-import-
> expand-supported-files
> *https://blueprints.launchpad.net/kicad/+spec/eeschema-plugin
> IMHO, they are quite similar, and Wayne Stambaugh reports good progress
> working on the latter.
>   The question of imports was also discussed in - at least - this thread:
> http://www.mail-archive.com/kicad-developers%40lists.launchp
> ad.net/msg18921.html
> where eagle .lbr's are focussed.
>
> Now, I've converted a few board files from eagle to kicad using pcbnew,
> and it works fine. That means to me, the import & conversion code,
> partially, is already here. Today, I can convert an XML schematic to kicad
> .sch, including some meta files, then annotate, generate a net list ...,
> and then 'marry' this with the pcbnew-generated board - it works.
>   But, it is cumbersome. My only choice - from the current point of view -
> is to extend my translation factory by netlist-, board processing et al,
> but: At least one man here does the same work, better than I can do it.
>
>   So my question is: What is the goal behind that blueprints? Is there a
> point I could help with?
>
> Michael
>
> PS: Initially I posted this mail via web interface to
> answers.launchpad.net, I assume. This copy should go to the developers
> mailing list, where it is determined to. Please, excuse my confusion ...
>
>
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