kicad-lib-committers team mailing list archive

[Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----

> From: Vesa Solonen <vesa.solonen@xxxxxxxx>
> To: Cirilo Bernardo <cirilo_bernardo@xxxxxxxxx>
> Cc: "kicad-lib-committers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" <kicad-lib-committers@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Wednesday, January 9, 2013 10:14 AM
> Subject: Re: [Kicad-lib-committers] Footprint library info
> 
> 08.01.2013 01:37, Cirilo Bernardo kirjoitti:
> 
>>  I agree and would even go a few steps further.  In IPC7351 and ongoing 
> discussions on land patterns there are also other layers which are mentioned 
> such as the fiducials layer (I can't recall if the zero position / zero 
> orientation marks go into the fiducial layer or their own special layer).  I 
> think all the extra layers become more important for professional work and 
> especially for the creation and verification of boards intended for automated 
> assembly; people who do hand assembly can also benefit since they can use 
> footprints with larger courtyards.  The implementation can get tricky; for 
> example, a THT courtyard will extend to both sides of a board, many SMD 
> courtyards only affect one side of a board but some SMD courtyards may affect 
> both sides.  It may be necessary to see what the devs think of this so that we 
> can at least reserve certain layers for a fixed purpose.
>> 
>>  - Cirilo
> 
> Regarding devs I'd say _we_ have to work out the working system and
> design the needed data structures to support the system. Then we can
> suggest how about doing this like our plan, which includes what it does
> and how it does.
> 
> I'm pretty certain that Dick set up the lib-committers list just to get
> some noise off the devel as it was pretty loud at times. So lets specify
> what we need and see how to make it happen.
> 
> Btw, your parametric work is awesome and that should put in to use for
> footprints/land patterns as well.
> 
> -Vesa
> 

Thanks Vesa. :)

 Yes, you're right - we need to do the work and then make a sensible proposal to the devs. I'll be extremely busy for at least the next 5 months but I'll find time to re-read the docs I have and make some notes.

 For the 3D thru-hole models, I recently downloaded a draft of IPC7251 (land patterns for Thru-Hole Technology) and I will slowly read through it and enforce some of the rules on my 3D models where applicable. This is not an approved standard, but it's a start and if/when the work is approved later I imagine there won't be too many changes. I also plan to get a copy of IPC7351B (C is currently in draft, but who knows when it will be approved) and do some SMD models.  I also noticed that SourceForge is telling me that most people download the source from a Windows computer - I don't know if they really are using MSWin or if the browser is just saying that, but I'll try to set the software up under MinGW so that MSWin users can also generate the models from source. I think trying to distribute the generated models (*.wrl) will quickly become a ridiculous exercise and waste of bandwidth.

- Cirilo