kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 10/31/2017 5:01 PM, Oliver Walters wrote:
> How should I proceed here then?
> 
> I would like to see the various libraries being "cached" in the
> background, but this is increasing the scope of the work by a large factor.
> 
> One thing I have noticed:
> 
> In eeschema when you launch the component viewer, it (on first run) maps
> and caches all the footprint libraries. This can take AGES (especially
> on Windows). However on subsequent launches of the component viewer it
> appears instantly. It appears to be keeping a static map of the
> footprint library data.
> 
> a) Would this be an acceptable approach for the footprint viewer window

Sure.  Code reuse is a good thing.  I'm pretty sure the threaded
footprint library code is split out from the component chooser so it
should be reusable.

> b) What happens when the library data changes externally? Does component
> viewer need to be reloaded?

No, only the library that changed gets reloaded the next time it's
accessed.  It is not automatic.  I thought about using wxFileWatcher but
that could be a lot of overhead for little net gain.  See the pcb plugin
cache() functions.

> c) Can we globally perform this caching in a background thread when
> KiCad launches? This will hide the large pauses (up to a minute under
> Windows) from the user...

Yes, this should be done as a project element so that it can be accessed
from all of the main windows.  Please keep in mind, this could be a lot
of work and given that we are nearing a stable 5 release feature freeze,
so if it's not by then it will not make it into the stable 5 release.

> 
> Oliver
> 
> On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 11:32 PM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     On 10/31/2017 1:25 AM, Oliver Walters wrote:
>     > Hmm, I had thought that there was a way to load only the *names* of
>     > footprints, rather than individually parsing each footprint file. It
>     > appears that this is not the case. Any suggestions on how the speed
>     > could be improved? Currently I'm reading out all the footprint names in
>     > each footprint library and only storing the names (wxString) rather than
>     > the MODULE* objects. However, I still have to parse the entire library
>     > on load.
>     >
>     > Ideally, I think it would be good to just read in the names, and then
>     > load and display individual MODULE objects on demand.. Is this possible?
> 
>     This is possible (although not implemented) for library types (kicad,
>     geda) that use one file per footprint.  You could just read the file
>     names from the folder and load the files as required.  If you want to
>     search any other properties of the footprint, then you will have to load
>     all of the footprints anyway.  I don't know if this would be worth the
>     effort.
> 
>     For library types that contain multiple footprints per file (legacy,
>     Eagle), this wouldn't make much sense.  Parsing the entire file just to
>     pick out the footprint names probably isn't going to save you very much
>     time.
> 
>     >
>     > On Tue, Oct 31, 2017 at 10:40 AM, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
>     > <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:
>     >
>     >     On 10/30/2017 5:23 PM, Oliver Walters wrote:
>     >     > Thanks for the suggestions on fixing the text. I have that sorted. 
>     >     >
>     >     > I will look into different ways of caching footprint data so it is quicker. 
>     >     >
>     >     > Wayne, I didn't know about FOOTPRINT_FILTER I will switch to using that
>     >     > instead (and provide regex search).
>     >
>     >     Thanks Oliver!
>     >
>     >     >
>     >     > On 31 Oct 2017 06:55, "Seth Hillbrand" <seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx>
>     <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx>>
>     >     > <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx>
>     <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:seth.hillbrand@xxxxxxxxx>>>> wrote:
>     >     >
>     >     >     On Mon, Oct 30, 2017 at 11:42 AM, Wayne Stambaugh
>     >     >     <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
>     <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>>
>     >     <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>
>     <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>>>>wrote:
>     >     >
>     >     >         On 10/30/2017 1:16 PM, Seth Hillbrand wrote:
>     >     >         > Oliver, this is neat and very helpful.
>     >     >         >
>     >     >         > The greyed-out thing is a wx2.8 bug.  You can work
>     >     around it by setting
>     >     >         > the foreground color when updating the filter like
>     this:
>     >     >         >  
>     >     >         >  void FOOTPRINT_VIEWER_FRAME::OnFilterUpdated(
>     >     wxCommandEvent& event )
>     >     >         >  {
>     >     >         > +    // Workaround wx2.8 bug showing greyed color
>     >     >         > +    if( m_searchBox->GetValue() !=
>     >     m_searchBox->GetDescriptiveText() )
>     >     >         > +        m_searchBox->SetForegroundColour(
>     >     >         > m_searchBox->GetDefaultAttributes().colFg );
>     >     >         > +
>     >     >         >      // Filter is non case sensitive
>     >     >         >      wxString filter =
>     m_searchBox->GetValue().Lower();
>     >     >         >
>     >     >         > The searchbox handles resetting it to grey on idle()
>     >     when the text is empty.
>     >     >
>     >     >         Don't you mean wx 3.0?  CMake should not even
>     generate the
>     >     build
>     >     >         configuration files without wx 3.0 or greater.
>     >     >
>     >     >
>     >     >     Hmm... This was an issue back in 2.8 that appears to be only
>     >     partly
>     >     >     fixed.  The workaround I suggest above is functional
>     but, for
>     >     this,
>     >     >     we can also execute a cleaner fix by setting the descriptive
>     >     text in
>     >     >     the declaration:
>     >     >
>     >     >     @@ -67,9 +67,10 @@ void
>     FOOTPRINT_VIEWER_FRAME::ReCreateHToolbar()
>     >     >                                      KiBitmap( module_xpm ),
>     >     >                                      _( "Select footprint to
>     >     browse" ) );
>     >     >      
>     >     >     -        m_searchBox = new wxSearchCtrl( m_mainToolBar,
>     >     >     ID_MODVIEW_SEARCH_TEXT );
>     >     >     +        m_searchBox = new wxSearchCtrl( m_mainToolBar,
>     >     >     ID_MODVIEW_SEARCH_TEXT,
>     >     >     +                _( "Enter filter string" ) );
>     >     >              m_searchBox->SetMinSize( wxSize( 250, 30 ) );
>     >     >     -        m_searchBox->SetDescriptiveText( _( "Enter filter
>     >     string" ) );
>     >     >
>     >     >
>     >     >
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