[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Author Index][Thread Index]
Re: gEDA-user: PCB template?
On Tue, 20 Apr 2010 13:21:29 -0400
Ethan Swint <eswint.ramu@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>
> Jim wrote:
> > I am designing a couple of boards (if successful more than 2) that
> > have the same "form factor". That is they are the same physical size
> > and both (all) have fingers to plug into a card slot on a mother
> > board. So I don't have to worry about registration of the fingers
> > each time I come up with a new board, is there a way I can define a
> > PCB template that includes the fingers? That seems like it would be
> > hard to do since the fingers are a connector on the schematic and
> > wouldn't line up right without some tricks. The other option might be
> > if there were a command line to PCB that I could execute to tell it
> > "put pin 1 of conn1 at X, Y". Or would it be best to have a template
> > that has a target in silk to line the fingers up?
> > I'm open to the simplest solution.
Since this template is a plug-in card, it made me think of how hybrid integrated circuits are generally treated as single components in many situations.
If your template is simple enough, maybe you could create a custom footprint out of it. PCB's buffer-assisted footprint creation method may be useful here, but depending on what all is in your template, it might be easier to just edit (a backup copy of) your layout file with a text editor, and manually turn it into a footprint file.
Then you could just place a connector in your schematic file (Gschem I assume) and assign this new footprint to it. When you import it, the new board template would be brought into the empty layout along with the rest of your components, and you would treat it like one.
This means you can't make major alterations to the form factor of the device, but you said you wanted to keep that fixed, so that's probably OK.
--
"There are some things in life worth obsessing over. Most
things aren't, and when you learn that, life improves."
http://starbase.globalpc.net/~ezekowitz
Vanessa Ezekowitz <vanessaezekowitz@xxxxxxxxx>
_______________________________________________
geda-user mailing list
geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user