kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Clemens Koller <cko@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello!

This feature looks really useful in production if it's implemented properly.
Some comments from my side how things could be extended in the future:

Group selection (also read: table-based/parametric-based selection!) seems like a great feature and the step towards physical design reuse (PDR).
With some intelligent grouping of routed components and automatic/assisted selection of components based on netlist-topology (or manual or table based selection) it is possible to create a physical design reuse (or channels) by duplicating groups with the same layout but different component references + different net names / instances of net names.
An additional approach is intelligent "group editing" (table based - a must have for complex designs!) where there is an automatic / assisted rename of components and netnames to create reuses. This also applies to the schematic entry, obviously.

The word "intelligent" above means obviously, that there is some infrastructure and coding work to consider.

An example screenshot of one of my designs using a buggy commercial product is attached. There are 60 similar channels.
Layouting these manually would be a hell of work, obviously.

Regards,

Clemens


On 2017-01-12 17:37, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
> I think this feature would be useful but we should proceed with caution
> if we are going to include persistence.  I'm guessing making groups
> persistent will require a change to the pcb file format.  We should
> think this through thoroughly before moving forward.  Is it possible
> that this grouping could be used for an a****m like room feature?  If
> so, than we need to plan this out accordingly rather than just commit a
> new feature for the sake of convenience.
> 
> On 1/12/2017 6:55 AM, Tomasz Wlostowski wrote:
>> I like it. Give me a few days to review it and I hope it will get
>> merged. You'll also have to make the groups persistent (save to file).
>> Recursive grouping (group of groups) would be also an advantage.
>>
>>
>> Cheers,
>> Tom
>>
>> Sent from my Samsung Galaxy smartphone.
>>
>>
>> -------- Original message --------
>> From: Kristoffer Ödmark <kristofferodmark90@xxxxxxxxx>
>> Date: 12/01/2017 12:41 (GMT+01:00)
>> To: kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>> Subject: Re: [Kicad-developers] Group selection idea
>>
>> Hey again, What would be the chances of seing this getting into the
>> master branches on launchpad, what would I have to add/change to get it
>> there?
>>
>> - Kristoffer
>>
>> On 2017-01-11 21:59, Kristoffer Ödmark wrote:
>>> Attaching Patch!
>>>
>>> ( Thanks Chris! )
>>>
>>> On 2017-01-11 20:51, Kristoffer Ödmark wrote:
>>>> Hello!
>>>>
>>>> I hacked together a group selection concept looking like this:
>>>> https://youtu.be/eJp-aJ8i0H4
>>>>
>>>> It can assign BOARD_ITEM to a specific group for easier selection and
>>>> group manipulation. I am open to suggestions on changes, this is surely
>>>> not an optimal implementation.
>>>>
>>>> Useful when you may want to keep the relative position of something on
>>>> the board like maybe a RF layout etc.
>>>>
>>>> It cannot currently save the group assignments between sessions, since
>>>> that would require some changes to the file format. That would need some
>>>> agreement that this is indeed wanted.
>>>>
>>>> it also doesnt work on zones right now.
>>>>
>>>> ps: I do not now the best way to attach a patch file.
>>>> I added my feature
>>>> commit
>>>> git pull
>>>> fix conflict
>>>> commit
>>>>
>>>> Anyone have any steps on how to get one patch file for this, now I got
>>>> one patch file, and a merge.
>>>>
>>>> - Kristoffer
>>
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