gEDA-user: A (premature) release of SmartDisperse plugin

[Ben Jackson <ben@xxxxxxx>]

My first test board for PCB involved an array of LEDs, and even with just
a few components it got really annoying searching for the resistors that
went with each LED after the DisperseElements().

My head was filled with grandiose schemes for improving Disperse without
turning it into autoplace.  I've written something that does a better job
than the stock function, with a better framework for changing the placement
order if you come up with a better algorithm.  The actual placement
algorithm is fairly weak, but it's still a dramatic improvement (compare
a ratsnest after the two disperses).

In the spirit of open source I cast this hack upon the waters for someone
else to improve.  Ultimately I think the PCB data structures are so bad,
especially from the perspective of a plugin, that a really good plugin would
have to construct a whole new element/netlist representation internally.

Get your copy from:

	http://ad7gd.net/geda/smartdisperse.c

Compile/install:

	PCB=$(HOME)/cvs/pcb
	gcc -I$(PCB) -I$(PCB)/src -g -O2 -shared autocrop.c -o autocrop.so
	cp smartdisperse.so $(HOME)/.pcb/plugins/

Run with :SmartDisperse() or :SmartDisperse(Selected)  (you can also
say All, but it's the default).

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
<ben@xxxxxxx>
http://www.ben.com/


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