gEDA-user: Luxeon footprints

[Jeffrey Bridge <jeffrey@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi guys,

I have been doing bigger and bigger layouts using gschem and PCB
recently, and I've gotten pretty used to working around various quirks.
However, I have run into a problem which does not seem to have any
solution beyond modifying the code for PCB to add some capabilities. I
would like to make a footprint for any of the Lumileds LUXEON power LEDs
to add to my project. They have three basic housing designs, from oldest
to newest the I/III/V, the K2, and the Rebel.

The Luxeon K2 requires a hexagonal soldermask hole inside of a larger
filled copper area, as seen on page 14 of
http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/DS51.pdf

The Rebel requires some more fancy soldermask work, in addition to
curved arcs and odd shaped filled areas. Fabbed PCB photo on page 11 of 
http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/DS56.pdf and documentation on pages 5-8 of
http://www.lumileds.com/pdfs/AB32.pdf.


However,
"Elements may contain pins, pads, element lines, element arcs,
attributes, and (for older elements) an optional mark."

Thus, if I wanted to make a hexagon, curves, or large filled areas as
part of an element, I would have to approximate it manually using only a
large number of pads, which is far from optimal.

How difficult might it be to add one or more of these capabilities into
both the file format and software, in order that I can use it for
Luxeons?


Jeff



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