kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Clemens Koller <cko@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hello, Jeff!

On 18/05/2019 12.37, Jeff Young wrote:
> We need fewer origins.

I agree.

> I like the name Coordinates Origin, but why do we then need a Grid Origin?  And why a setting for the displayed coordinates?  Shouldn’t that always be the Coordinates Origin?

My imagination of the Layout world: I would welcome a "Physical Design Origin" or short "Origin". If I place my board edge (or a component or something else) at the Origin (0,0) then I would expect that it also gets output at the Gerber at (0,0) as well as all other output files.

Additionally, during the layout/placement process, there could be an additional "Auxiliary Grid" to aid in the placement of elements by snapping to it.
(Example: Placing thousands of LEDs in a backlight panel.) This grid could be an odd spaced cartesian or polar (or other?) coordinate system with a Grid Offset relative to the Physical Origin. This Aux Grid settings should also be saved to the design but not affect the physical design itself.

The Visible Grid could or should visualize the Aux Grid if it's set. There might be cases where more than one Aux Grid/Visible Grid might come in handy.
In the future, when we think about multi PCB designs, there might be more than one Physical Design Origin as well as multiple Aux Grids in a project.

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OT: A different thing is the manufacturing files / output file generation (i.e. Gerber) where it might be nice/mandatory to add additional offsets or step & repeat parameters (also polar coorrdinates would be great, or a whole transform matrix). These settings might also be saved in the design, but used only for the corresponding manufacturing output.

Just my five Cents,

Clemens