kicad-developers team mailing list archive

[Eeli Kaikkonen <eeli.kaikkonen@xxxxxxxxx>]

I don't understand all of this, but some kind of parametrization of values
of components in hierarchical sheets has been wished for in some bug report.

I would like to see full utilization of user definable variables with
capability of overriding, not only for hierarchical sheets, but all of
KiCad (at least eeschema and pcbnew, i.e. schematics and layouts).

There would be a table for freely named variables which could be defined or
overriden in each level: user, project, main level schematic sheet, 1st
level hierarchical sheet etc.

For example I could define a variable named ${WRITER} with value "Eeli" in
user level, then use it in all my projects in any place where text can be
entered. Each file or other comparable entity like a hierarchical sheet
instance would have a table of variable names and values where values could
be overriden. Probably there should be a way to do the overriding vice
versa: if the value for a variable is given in upper level, it will be
used, otherwise the local default value is used. So, there could be a third
column in the table: "prefer this" or "override this".

This is quite complicated, but it would be invisible if a user doesn't want
to use it, and it would give as much freedom and new possibilities as
possible with one unified generalized approach. It can be applied to more
problems than just parametrized sheets.

Would that satisfy your needs?

Eeli Kaikkonen (not a KiCad developer)

On Fri, Dec 27, 2019 at 6:38 PM Tjeerd Pinkert <
t.j.pinkert@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Dear list,
>
> some has probably already been discussed here. I'm diving a bit further
> into hierarchical schematics at present. I'm trying to creating "module"
> schematics that are version controlled in Git, only schematics at this
> moment, and I'm missing some things that would be nice to have in that
> area. Currently also some behaviour of Kicad is a bit counter intuitive
> at that point with regard to where stuff is stored in the files.
>
> The attached file contains some thoughts on this from a user
> perspective. Basically some use cases that, I hope, become possible in
> the future... (no, not expecting this in 6 or even 7, but some day...)
>
> Any comments are welcome, also on how to formulate this such that it
> could become points on the roadmap?
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Tjeerd Pinkert
> _______________________________________________
> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> Post to     : kicad-developers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers
> More help   : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
>