kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 8/13/2018 12:19 PM, Jeff Young wrote:
> Hi JP,
> 
> Some of those user-model issues regarding aliases & fields are exactly what I was trying to address.
> 
> From a user’s perspective, aliases *sort of* have two fields: value(name) and datasheet.  When they place an alias in a schematic, those two fields are (or at least can be) different than when placing the root.  For this reason the new UI shows those two fields as “Alias field substitutions”.
> 
> But more importantly the new UI removes the very indistinct idea of an alias being “selected” (while the alias dropdown allows the 3 fields to be edited in the Description tab of the Symbol Properties, all the other tabs, the Symbol Fields dialog and the canvas still show the root.
> 
> So the alias dropdown is gone.  Instead we show the alias list and the alias properties/field substitutions on a single page in the Symbol Properties dialog.  This makes it much more clear that they’re editing the root, but that they can set these specific properties per alias.
> 
> Cheers,
> Jeff.

You may be correct about your changes being less confusing but I would
be willing to bet that some users will get tripped up by the fact the
spice mode field exists only in the root symbol and not any of the
aliases.  The new symbol file format will address this issue so it may
make sense to wait until I get it implemented before making this change.

Wayne

> 
> 
>> On 13 Aug 2018, at 15:27, jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>
>> Le 13/08/2018 à 15:40, Jeff Young a écrit :
>>> Cool.  I’ll go ahead and add it for now; it’s only a few lines so it’s
>>> easy enough to remove if we change our minds.
>>>
>>> (Screenshots attached to show the new alias handling, which attempts to
>>> not show as much of the internal implementation.)
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Jeff.
>>>
>>
>> I am not sure to understand what you mean by:
>> "in LibEdit I noticed there’s no Edit Spice Model… button."
>> In Libedit, it is in Symbol Field dialog.
>>
>> Just keep in mind all fields are fields of the root symbol, and aliases
>> share these fields, but cannot have specific fields.
>>
>> Only 3 specific strings are related to a given alias:
>> Description
>> Keywords
>> Documentation.
>>
>> So, If you change the symbol settings dialog, try to make very clear the
>> fact aliases do not have specific fields.
>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>> On 13 Aug 2018, at 13:26, Wayne Stambaugh <stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx
>>>> <mailto:stambaughw@xxxxxxxxx>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Spice models are a specific type of optional field where in the past the
>>>> symbol library editor has only supported generic optional field editing.
>>>> I'm not sure if spice model field editing needs to be part of the
>>>> symbol library editor but I don't see any harm in it either.
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>>
>>>> Wayne
>>>>
>>>> On 8/13/2018 7:31 AM, Jeff Young wrote:
>>>>> While overhauling the Symbol Properties dialog for LibEdit I noticed
>>>>> that there’s no Edit Spice Model… button.
>>>>>
>>>>> There’s no reason to exclude it, is there?  I assume I should go
>>>>> ahead and add one?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Jeff.
>>>
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> Jean-Pierre CHARRAS
>>
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