Re: gEDA-user: why separate xgsch2pcb?

["John P. Doty" <jpd@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mark Stanley wrote:
> And I understand how the schematic might be automated as it is just a visual 
> representation of a net list, but I just can't imagine how on earth you could 
> layout a board without ever looking at it.  Or is that even what you are talking 
> about?
>   
Think of it as two processes: design and layout.

In the design process, the human inputs are schematics, text, tables, 
source code, etc. The data products are netlists, BOMs, simulations, 
graphics, documentation, programs, etc. Ideally in design automation, 
the flow from the inputs to the data products is fully automatable, so a 
single command can generate all of the data products from the inputs. If 
you change a drawing, you shouldn't have to push a bunch of buttons to 
get it into the documentation, for example.

Layout takes some of the data products  from design, and with additional 
human inputs, produces more data products: gerbers, pick and place, mask 
sets, layout-derived netlists, more documentation, etc. Again, it is 
desirable to be able to get the data products "hands off" once the human 
inputs are in.

It is good to have an interface here. The automation breaks at the start 
of layout, for the reasons you note. My customers all have their 
preferred layout people and processes: gEDA supports them all well (so 
easy to write a gnetlist back end). And nobody will ever do an ASIC 
layout with pcb.

--
John Doty      Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
jpd@xxxxxxxxx 



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