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Re: [PATCH] - File format shim for clearance data

 

Hi Thomasz,

I hope I'm able to address you concerns. I'm stuck using kicad stable in many situations. I brought clearances up for discussion last July but no one moved on it, nor are they required to. Clearance management is a major pain point for me so I wrote a fix. This patch will let us (me and the people I collaborate with) work using version 5, but open and close files written with a version patched with clearance handling code.

I believe that code exactly like this will go into version 6. Getting it in earlier makes a huge difference to me, so I'm submitting it.

On 07/03/18 23:30, Tomasz Wlostowski wrote:
Hi hauptmech,

I'm sorry but IMHO we can't accept your patch:
- it changes the file format while we are already in feature freeze.
This is a way too big change to accept for the V5.

This patch simply adds tokens to the file format. No clearance data is saved for files that use the netclass only. Files without clearance tokens continue to remain without them.

Yes it is a backward compatible file format change, but it does no harm to V5 files already in the wild.

- we are planning to overhaul the clearance/design rules system in V6.
Storing the clearance *DIRECTLY* for each track segment/via will
conflict with any more sophisticated design rule management system.

I'm glad you are planning this. I am sure that regardless of the sophistication of the rule system, you will store clearance directly for exactly the same reason that track width is stored directly now. There are always exceptions to the rules.

If kicad choose a direction that does not store clearances per item, then it is easy to rip these few lines back out.

Did this answer your existing concerns about this patch? Are there any other concerns you have about this patch?




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