Re: gEDA-user: quick question

["Phil Taylor" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Exporting from PCB is a great thing to be able to do.  But the real need lies
in a way to work with mechanical drawings _at the same time_ as the PCB is
getting drawn.

On every project I've done, the chassis or their molds get designed at the
same time as the pcb.  Getting things to fit actually happens for every single
project I do -- even if it's not a matter of fitting parts into crazy spaces
(which I OFTEN use PCB for) you still have to get holes, switches, pots,
displays, heatsinks, etc all lined up with the outside world.  Mechanical
drawing on linux is needed (I need it anyway).  

It's never really been that case that you have a compromise free hardware
design that follows from the PCB layout.  These things happen together and
there are considerable compromises between what can be done with a board and
what can be done with the hardware.

I have two computers sitting side by side, one linux and one winpc and I
transfer everything between the two manually while in the process of
developing a project.  To do a serious project, you make two sets of drawings
with the final plot of a PCB only partially verifying your mechanical work.

Phil