kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 9/25/2017 9:13 AM, jp charras wrote:
> Le 25/09/2017 à 10:22, Maciej Sumiński a écrit :
>> Hi Russell,
>>
>> Would you provide a board example that would be affected by the change?
>> It would be very helpful to test the patch.
>>
>> I am not really sure whether EDGE_MODULEs drawn on copper layers will be
>> exported to Gerbers and I am certain that they will not be taken into
>> account during DRC or zone fill calculations. If my suspicions are
>> correct, then IMHO presence of such footprints should lead to a warning
>> message and nothing more. Perhaps they could be converted to custom
>> shape pads, but I am not sure it is always applicable or trivial.
>>
>> Regards,
>> Orson
> 
> I am also not especially thrilled by allowing EDGE_MODULEs items on copper layers for 2 reasons:
> - DRC does not take in account these items.
> - EDGE_MODULEs polygonal shapes are not editable in the footprint editor.
> Therefore you cannot remove or change them.
> 
> They are allowed in a very specific case: automatically generated microwave footprints.
> (and I recently modified a microwave footprint type to use a custom pad).
> 
> A warning message is currently the only one reliable way to manage this kind of item.
> Allowing EDGE_MODULEs items on copper layers during Eagle to Pcbnew import process is the best way
> to create serious issues and mistakes.
> In short: on a copper layer, you cannot easily put graphic items.
> 
> Remark: EDGE_MODULEs items on copper layers are handled in zone filling and plot functions.
> However, because they are not belonging a net (because in Pcbnew they are not currently linked to a
> pad), they cannot be perfectly handled.

Thank you for the input JP.

Russel, you will have to change your patch accordingly.  I see two
possible options, neither will be easy.  Convert to a custom pad or
convert to another layer and warn the user about the issues so they can
manually fix them.  The custom pad conversion complexity is obvious.
The user warning is not as easy as it would seem.  No UI code is allowed
in plugins.  This means that you must queue up messages, raise an
IO_ERROR exception, and catch that in the UI code.

> 
>>

<<<snipped>>>