kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Simon Richter <Simon.Richter@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Wayne,

On 01.01.19 20:59, Wayne Stambaugh wrote:

> I have updated and published the symbol file format[1] for comment.
> Hopefully there isn't too much to change.  The only thing to really
> finalize is the internal units.

This would be an artificial unit for the file format, not necessarily
the true internal unit (which I want to unify across the entire program
as soon as feasible, but that should be independent from the file formats).

If we want to keep using the grid as a poor man's magnetic anchor, it
would perhaps make sense to just state the grid size in the component,
and then use integer grid coordinates in the file for anything that is
electrically connected. Users could then standardize on whatever grid
size they prefer, get warnings for mixing components with different grid
sizes, and/or get the option to scale the component so it fits.

For graphical parts, we need finer resolution than the grid, but
inaccuracies no longer matter, so we can just use floating point numbers
here.

I have several feature ideas I'd like to add at later points, so it
would be nice to have a format version number and/or a list of format
extensions somewhere near the beginning.

The other thing I'd like to see are standard properties for tagging
library conformance, so components that have been verified by library
maintainers would contain the name, version and variant of the library
conventions they have been tested against, and these tags would be
removed when editing.

This will allow for easier tracking of components through format
updates, for example the new format adds pin swapping hints, which
presumably the next version of the KLC will require for parts with
swappable pins, but doesn't now because the feature doesn't exist yet.

Converted parts from the old library would be marked as conformant with
an older KLC version, so the differences between the KLC versions can be
used as a checklist to bring the component up to the current standard
without requiring a full recheck.

   Simon

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