kicad-lib-committers team mailing list archive

[Lorenzo Marcantonio <l.marcantonio@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm here, too, now.

Have to learn *yet another* VCS. First RCS, then CVS, SVN (mine
favourite now), bzr and now git. Haven't been spared from sourcesafe,
either :P

git seems quite similar to svn to use, except for the distributed part.
And the version 'numbers'. Good luck from a glance knowing if it's older
or newer.

Anyhow.

I put up all my stuff here:

https://github.com/LorenzoMarcantonio/kicad-iso-library

Comments for the stuff:

- Libraries are in mixed form, didn't migrate everything yet to the pretty format.

- The pcbnew stuff can't be read with a stock pcbnew, since I use
  extended layers. Look up in the developers archive for the whole sad
  story.

- Demo things: there is a pdf with the whole character repertoire and
  a few demonstrating the silk/assembly layer split and the general look
  and feel of a schematic done with this libs. They are for a device now
  in mass production and they are not free (and anyway it's only a power
  supply and the assembly drawings :P). Just to give an idea of the
  final result and to show that kicad is used for Real Stuff™

- Clarification about funny things in strings. The text drawing routines
  have been extended in two ways: first the backslash pick up a char
  from the Techical Set, so with \% you get the funny symbol which IIRC
  means 'output with pullup' and \5 get you the three periods. These are
  somewhat essential for 60617-12 and -13; the other thing is that the
  underscore toggles subscript like the tilde toggles the overbar. So
  V_CC give VCC written in the JEDEC way (not essential but cute)

- Corollary to the previous: I use the underscore only to differentiate
  packages with different pinouts: look at the XC9536XL which is
  available in both 44 and 64 pin version.

- Sorry, no BGA or similar high pin count; we don't use them if possibly
  because with vibration they actually *fall down* and underfill is
  expensive :D

- I have access to the 60617, the Italian CEI edition 1997/1998 (don't
  know if it's the latest...). If you need a particular symbol drawn
  just ask.

- About the page layouts: first of all the funny left margin is correct,
  by design. You are meant to punch the drawing there and file it. Also
  it is handy because many printers have... issues on the bottom side of
  the paper (special rollers are needed). EN5457 has the scary details.
  In fact you are supposed to use A4 only in portrait and all the other
  sizes in landscape. There exist 'enlarged' formats (like an A3 wide as
  an A2) but a) they are not common and b) kicad doesn't support them
  anyway.

- Margin references need to be done ad-hoc for each paper format.
  Reason: A4 (portrait only, remember!) has them only on one side; the
  bigger sheets (only landscape) have them aligned on the center of the
  sheet (for microfilming purposes) and kicad doesn't support that. Also
  the letter sequence is peculiar since IIRC 'I' and 'O' are omitted to
  avoid confusion (look at the ISO lettering and you know why).
  Anyway I think they aren't very useful (unless you have a gadzillion
  parts on an A0 sheet)

- The title block is not exactly standard. In fact the EN7200 doesn't
  mandate a specific layout, only the data and the size of the block,
  which is 19cm, the bottom drawing space on the A4 portrait. Look at
  the charset demo.

Have fun,

-- 
Lorenzo Marcantonio
Logos Srl