Re: gEDA-user: different footprints for a symbol

[sdb@xxxxxxxxxx (Stuart Brorson)]

> 
> Hi,
> what is the recommended way to deal with different footprints for the
> same sort of device? e.g. an opamp may be DIP8 or SO8. A resistor may be
> 0603, 0805, 1208, or with wires.

Everybody does this differently.  I typically draw almost all my
footprints and keep them in a local directory.  Then I draw the
schematic and attach the footprints attributes with gattrib.  Gattrib
makes it easy to bulk edit your schematic attributes, so changing
footprints is easy.  It is part of the standard gEDA/gaf
installation.  

Some info from the wiki about dealing with footprints, and getting
their names:

http://geda.seul.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=geda:pcb_tips#i_want_to_use_pcb_to_do_layout._how_do_i_know_what_value_to_use_for_the_footprint_attribute

> In protel there is a list of possible footprints that is associated with
> every symbol. That way you only have to choose between a few preselected
> footprints instead of the whole library.

This is the old "light" vs. "heavy" footprint issue which Phil alluded
to:

http://geda.seul.org/dokuwiki/doku.php?id=geda:faq-gschem#what_s_this_business_about_heavy_vs._light_symbols

gEDA will likely remain a "light" footprint system unless an advocate
of "heavy" footprints takes the time and effort to incorporate a
footprint attribute browser directly into gschem and gattrib.
However, some folks have produced "heavy" footprint libraries which
they have been known to share if you ask nicely on the list.   

Stuart