kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

Support for properties already exists in the board file format although
I don't believe every object support properties yet.  Please keep in
mind, properties are only for key value pairs that have nothing to do
with anything internal to kicad and are meant to passed to third party
tools.  Anything used internally by kicad should have a valid file token
to identify it.

On 3/12/2018 4:48 AM, Russell Oliver wrote:
> Hi JP, 
> 
> Not much really, but would extend the idea to the PCB text and to other
> parameters. The user in the forum requested the ability to dynamically
> display pad netnames on the silkscreen for example. I think this would
> be done as 
> Including the ability to automatically silkscreen project names,
> filenames, modification dates etc to the board would be good too. 
> 
> Russell 
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 6:47 PM jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx
> <mailto:jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
> 
>     Le 12/03/2018 à 01:03, Jon Evans a écrit :
>     > I think there are perhaps two different features here:
>     >
>     > 1) an easy way to create a text item that displays an object
>     property (in schematic or layout).  In
>     > the eventual properties editor, I'm imagining some kind of
>     "show/hide" checkbox that when checked
>     > creates the text.
>     >
>     > 2) a text substitution system a la Altium Designer, that lets you
>     reference various properties in
>     > the value of a text field (so escaped macros, not a dropdown). 
>     This one seems less critical if #1
>     > is implemented, but it still lets you do some cool stuff.
>     >
>     > For #1, here's a screenshot of the Altium component properties dialog:
>     >
>     http://wiki.altium.com/download/attachments/3080263/Component+Properties+Dialog.png
>     >
>     > (I'm not saying we should necessarily clone Altium, but it's an
>     easy way to refer to this feature)
>     > You can see in the upper right there is a grid of parameters,
>     which can come in from the library and
>     > can also be added / edited by the user.
>     > For each of them, there is a "visible" checkbox on the left, and
>     if you check it, that parameter
>     > value will show up on the schematic (and it works in a similar way
>     for layout)
> 
>     These parameters look to me like very similar to our symbol fields.
>     Apart the dialog, what is different?
> 
>     >
>     > Here's another example, from Mentor Graphics PADS:
>     >
>     https://mgc-images.imgix.net/pads_com/pads-c0d37eb2-36c2-44d8-b394-a7fd07861718.png
>     >
>     > The item properties are accessed through a dockable window that in
>     this screenshot is on the right side.
>     > The properties are a key/value system, and you can see that there
>     are checkboxes for both the keys
>     > and the values.
>     > If you have a property named "TOLERANCE" with value "10%", you can
>     check the value box and get a
>     > label saying "10%",
>     > or check both boxes to get a label saying "TOLERANCE=10%"
>     >
>     > -Jon
>     >
>     > On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 7:50 PM, Russell Oliver
>     <roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx>
>     > <mailto:roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:
>     >
>     >     Jon, 
>     >
>     >     Any thoughts on how you envisage this working? Text
>     substitution through using escaped macros or
>     >     a direct reference that can be picked via say a dropdown box
>     in the dialog? 
>     >
>     >
>     >
>     >     On Mon, Mar 12, 2018 at 5:34 AM Jon Evans <jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> <mailto:jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:jon@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:
>     >
>     >         Display net name of pad automatically:  You can use this
>     to auto-label test points with the
>     >         net name they are connected to, for example
>     >
>     >         Other places where text substitution is useful to me:
>     >
>     >         - Set project-level properties, like schematic title, part
>     number, revision, etc.  Have it
>     >         automatically show up on every sheet title block and stay
>     in sync on the board silkscreen layer.
>     >
>     >         - Add lots of properties to parts (i.e. resistors get
>     voltage, tolerance, tempco, etc) and
>     >         automatically show these as labels on the schematic next
>     to refdes and value
>     >
>     >         -Jon
>     >
>     >         On Sun, Mar 11, 2018 at 11:56 AM, Nick Østergaard
>     <oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx>
>     >         <mailto:oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:oe.nick@xxxxxxxxx>>> wrote:
>     >
>     >             Den 8. mar. 2018 22.39 skrev "Russell Oliver"
>     <roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx <mailto:roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx>
>     >             <mailto:roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx
>     <mailto:roliver8143@xxxxxxxxx>>>:
>     >
>     >                 As a follow up to the road map discussion I saw a
>     forum post asking if it was
>     >                 possible to display the net name of a pad on the
>     silkscreen or other layers much
>     >                 like the value or reference fields. 
>     >
>     >
>     >             Why is this useful? Could you explain the exact use case?
>     >
>     >
>     >                 While a simple implementation would be to create a
>     text item directly linked to each
>     >                 pad that could be enabled, and shows the link to
>     the relevant pad,  I think a more
>     >                 generic approach would be great to have.
>     >
>     >                 I propose that either or both of these options for
>     version 7. 
>     >
>     >                 a) standalone text items are processed as a
>     template.  A domain specific language
>     >                 would be designed to allow for references to items
>     as direct text substitutions. The
>     >                 implementation, scope and style of this DSL will
>     need to be workshopped and would
>     >                 like your comments on. 
>     >
>     >                 b) linked text (annotations) showing a graphical
>     link (like the blue line of values
>     >                 and reference ) A text item is created as a link
>     to another item, for which the text
>     >                 is derived from a list of properties of that item.
>     This would include such things as
>     >                 values, references, custom symbol and footprint
>     fields, sizes, positions, net names,
>     >                 net codes. 
>     >
>     >                 I'm almost certain this would require the updated
>     Schematic object in eeschema, but
>     >                 might already be achievable in pcbnew given its
>     current architecture, but that's
>     >                 more of a guess than anything.
>     >
>     >                 Any thoughts, guidance or critiques would be
>     appreciated. 
>     >
>     >                 Kind Regards 
>     >                 Russell 
> 
> 
> 
>     --
>     Jean-Pierre CHARRAS
> 
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