kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Strontium <strntydog@xxxxxxxxx>]

Oliver,

This is one of my components:
http://i.imgur.com/QXyCXXt.png

This is the component table:
http://i.imgur.com/F2WTRC2.png

The MFG, MPN or EQUIVOK fields in the component aren't shown in the table!

And in doing that I worked out my problem :)

I have MFG/MPN/EQUIVOK defined as "Default Fields" with default values.
And because the component hasn't been edited, I can edit it and SEE the 
default fields and default values BUT unless I change something they are 
not saved with the component.  And it just so happens that in this 
schematic NO components have been edited to include these default 
fields/values, so, they don't show up in the component table.

It would be nice if the "Default Fields" and their default values show 
in the table if they weren't defined for the component, maybe 
highlighted in some way (Italic, light grey, or something) to indicate 
they are defaulted and not actually set. But now I know why I couldn't 
see them its not a big deal so consider this an Enhancement request.

Also, editing Multipart components is a little quirky, If you change a 
field for a multi-part component, all "parts" update to that value, but 
if any parts have different values, only one is shown in the table and 
its not clear that the underlying multipart field is inconsistent.  
Again its not a big deal, I just noticed it.  Maybe multipart components 
should work like grouped components, i.e. you can click an arrow and see 
all the parts and edit them individually, or edit the top level 
component and set them all to the same value?  I'm not really sure if 
this is a good idea or not.

I'm working on an external BOM management tool. It reads a schematic 
live while you edit it in Kicad, and costs it from octopart and/or a 
database of locally defined components, updating in real time.  This 
tool you have made is going to save me an enormous amount of time 
editing schematics and getting all the field metadata consistent.  Thank 
you.

Two more enhancement ideas:
1. A way to update the schematic from edits without closing the table view.
2. A way to revert the last edit (undo)

Steven

On 05/05/17 20:56, Oliver Walters wrote:
> Steven,
>
> Unless you mean something different to what I think "custom fields" 
> means, then this is already the case - any extra fields (beyond 
> REFERENCE / FOOTPRINT / DATSHEET / VALUE) are preesnt to be edited in 
> the table...
>
> On Fri, May 5, 2017 at 10:51 PM, Strontium <strntydog@xxxxxxxxx 
> <mailto:strntydog@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>
>     Hi Oliver,
>
>     Just had a chance to check out your component table viewer, its
>     nice.  Great work.
>
>     Is it on your roadmap to be able to view/edit a components custom
>     fields?
>
>     Regards,
>     Steven
>
>     On 03/05/17 05:35, Oliver Walters wrote:
>
>         Wayne,
>
>         Thanks for merging!
>
>         I will address those points at some stage - there are other
>         ideas I have too but I thought it was better to get the first
>         iteration done and make incremental improvements.
>
>         Regards,
>         Oliver
>
>
>
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