Re: gEDA-user: PCB - how to update elements/components on a PCB

[Dan McMahill <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

joeft wrote:
> I've wondered about this since I started using PCB.  I see it as one of 
> the biggest problems with the way PCB works.  It should be truly 
> hierarchical and reference footprint info (with the proper scaling, 
> rotation, mirroring, attributes applied) rather than completely 
> embedding the footprint definition in the layout file.  Extending this 
> concept would provide for libraries of standard pin/pad geometries.  
> I've been burned many times by the inclusion of stale footprint data.
>
> I've contemplated writing a script that could find and replace 
> footprints in the file but haven't had the time yet, but would much 
> prefer that PCB dealt with the issue directly.   The gschem approach is 
> much better in that you can reference a part, limbed it like PCB, or 
> "smash" it into the file as primitives.  I'd love to see PCB do the same 
> thing.
>
> Joe T

I'll try to post a partial proposal about this over the weekend.  I've 
been wanting to fix this and have on the side been trying to capture the 
major issues and ways to address them.  Unfortunately I have more than 
one longer term project of this sort that is in the planning stage (not 
to the coding stage).  Perhaps if I get the proposal finished up someone 
might want to volunteer to help with the coding...

In the mean time, if anyone can describe the update mechanism for 
various other tools, I'd appreciate the input and maybe we can come out 
with the best one!

-Dan