Re: gEDA-user: PCB & Gschem

[Karel Kulhavy <clock@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Feb 24, 2006 at 04:52:42PM -0500, DJ Delorie wrote:
> 
> > Oh Well if a newbie cant work out what footprint you might as well
> > scrap Geda right now It will be consigned to the grave yard of
> > electronics programs.
> 
> If a newbie can't hold a part up in front of them, and compare it with
> pictures on the screen (yes, this is what you have to do sometimes),
> they really shouldn't be designing circuit boards.  *We* certainly
> have no idea what you're holding in your hand, or if it happened to
> match the one we had when we designed the footprint.
> 
> Many companies have an entire group that does nothing but design and
> certify footprints for the parts they know their people will be using.
> It's very easy to use the wrong footpring, and the user MUST decide
> what they want, verify it's correct, and take responsibility for any
> mistakes.  It's not something we, as gEDA's authors, can do much
> about, although we could probably improve the situation some by
> organizing pcb's footprint collection a little better.

gEDA's authors can do much about making sure the user doesn't do
mistakes - design the user interface and workflow the way that minimizes
mistakes.

Example: after running gsch2pcb the user has to run pcb on the
schematic, load the .new.pcb and the load the netlist. If he forgets one
of that, he gets erroneous result.

You could implement that PCB could be asked on commandline to load the
three things simultaneously. Then gsch2pcb would ask on the end "do you
want to launch PCB to take care of the changes?", you would press "y",
PCB would be launched in paste-buffer mode with the bunch of new
components ready for you to click somewhere. That would minimize the
possibility of error and speed things up.

If you implement symbol and footprint comments and easy way to select
them (without writing strings on paper with a danger of copying them
incorrectly) then you prevent another type of mistake.

Another thing to prevent mistake is to have a builtin list of common
processes. Like 0.35mm copper, 0.3mm gap, 0.2mm silkscreen. That's used
very often. If you enter one of those numbers wrong you can throw the
board away often.

> 
> And if it's any consolation, *I* got that wrong on my first board.
> Yup, had to scrap three brand new boards because I chose the wrong
> footprint for a part and couldn't work around it, and I used to design
> PC motherboards for a living.
> 
> Making PCBs is *hard*.

If gEDA and PCB implemented safety and productivity measures, it could
become very easy.

CL<