Re: gEDA-user: Mirrored headers: how do I define the footprints ?

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> 2) A system of classification of the elements was unified. For
> example, I needed to add an attribute "package" besides footprint
> because it is used for automatic generation of shopping list

This is "part number" :-)

> Either it should be said that holes in PCB mean always the final
> hole diameter, or the user should be allowed to choose what the
> diameter means during instantiation of the footprint, or there
> should be separate footprint for drill and final size diameters.

The 4pcb folks say that hole size is nearly always finished hole size,
because the customer can't know in advance what manufacturing
technique the fab house uses (and thus how much the hole size changes
when plated).  So, that one's a no-brainer.

> Also the design rules are changing.

Dan's latest patch adds vendor rules, opening the door for other
vendor-targetting tricks.  But this is a new feature, so don't expect
fancy auto-sizing just yet.

> Also, would it be possible to make ->footprint conversion accept
> rectangles for pads? The current line-based system is
> hyper-annoying, unless I am witless and missing some obvious cool
> way how to predetermine the line thickness and location.

I don't think the problem is rect vs lines, the problem is that we
have a cumbersome way of editing footprints ;-)