kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[jp charras <jp.charras@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Le 13/08/2019 à 18:52, Wayne Stambaugh a écrit :
> JP,
> 
> I took a look at your patch and I have a few comments.
> 
> Shouldn't the stack up dialog just be another panel the the board setup
> dialog?  I would think this information is part of the board setup but I
> could be wrong.
> 
> If the stack up information is part of the board setup then it should be
> in the "setup" section of the file format as well instead of a separate
> section.
> 
> Change the "board_stackup" token to "stackup".  Board is implied.
> 
> I'm not sure "dielectric_constrains" is necessarily clear.  Maybe
> "control_dielectric" would be more clear although I'm open to suggestion.
> 
> The dialog layout definitely needs improved.  The board thickness
> control has the units appended in the edit control along with the units
> displayed using static text.  The layer color swatches are not aligned
> with the rest of the layer row controls.  The color comboboxes are
> cutoff on GTK.  The capitalization is incorrect for the check box and
> sizer strings.
> 
> All in all, it's a good first step.  I'm sure this will be improved over
> time to cover other board stack up parameters.
> 
> Cheers,
> 
> Wayne
> 

Wayne and Seth, thanks for your input.

I attached a new version of the  Layer Stack Manager that fixes some issues.

A few comments on the dialog (also for @Seth):
I have fixed some issues (the issue with wxBitmapComboBox is a wxGTK
bug: I added a workaround)
Currently the  Layer Stack Manager uses its own dialog.
However the main code uses a wxPanel, so it can be easily moved in the
Preferences or the Board setup dialogs.

But I am not convinced the Preferences or the Board setup is the right
place for this stack manager:

 1- the Layer Setup in board setup is already a list with many info.
Adding more widgets on each line will create usability issues.

 2- these (layer setup and stack manager) panels are already not easy to
use when setting the copper layer count to 32.

3- the layer setup manages info for the board editor.
the stack manager manages info only for the CAM tools (currently, the
.gbrjob file) and none of the settings in  this stack manager are used
by the board editor (but some will be used by the 3D viewer).
I do not see a good reason to merge the layer setup the stack manager.
Moreover, in the future, the layer setup should manage more info (when
the possibility to add custom layers is added)

4- Once the stack manager is added to Pcbnew, the board thickness
setting will be removed from the Layer setup panel.

5- A good place for this stack manager could be inside a CAM tool that
allows to create all files (Gerber, drill files and gbrjob file) in one
command, with the same settings.
The the current stack manager dialog should be seen only as a temporary
dialog.

What about merging the code to master, and using advanced config to
enable it, although it is not really finished?

Thanks.

> On 8/10/19 7:18 AM, jp charras wrote:
>> Since a long time, I started (slowly...) a layer stack manager.
>> The purpose is to allow users to define (for board fabrication) some
>> important parameters like:
>> - tech, copper and dielectric thickness
>> - color of some tech layers
>> - dielectric material
>> - board constraints.
>>
>> All of these parameters are in the .gbrjob file generated when plotting
>> gbr files.
>> Note also these parameters are not used in the board editor, only used
>> to fabricate the board.
>>
>> the dialog is available from the "Tools" menu.
>>
>> The ultimate purpose is to have something like a CAM tool to manage info
>> about the board fabrication and to create files needed to fabricate the
>> board all in once.
>> This is mandatory to ensure all files (gbr files, gbrjob files,
>> placement files and some others) are created at the same time, and use
>> the same settings.
>> The first step is this layer Stack Manager.
>>
>> Please test and comment.
>> Note also the dialog is not very good, but it is good enough (i hope) to
>> test the feature.
>> The main result of these settings is in the .gbrjob file.
>> Thanks.
>>
>>
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-- 
Jean-Pierre CHARRAS

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