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Re: gEDA-user: why separate xgsch2pcb?
On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 11:14:41 -0500
DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > A symlink would probably solve this, but that feels a little kludgy.
>
> Make a symlink. PCB has to install a netlister into gnetlist's
> install directory.
That helped. I can now import most of a schematic, but it brings up a lot of
new errors in the log window (none at all in the terminal, however). There are
too many to list here, but they can be summarized into these three things:
1. None of my custom footprints are being pulled into the layout. For each
instance, the program returns messages of the form "Unable to load footprint
$foo", even though those footprints are accessible through the Library
window. The netlist does appear to contain the pins/connections that belong
to those absent footprints.
2. Some pins on PCB's stock footprints are being renamed without corresponding
changes being made to the netlist. For example footprint ACY100 starts out
with pins numbered 1 and 2 in both footprint and netlist, but ends up with the
pins on the footprint being named "+" and "-", respectively, breaking the
connections in the netlist.
3. Unrelated to the import function, but equally important: At some point
recently, a change was made to PCB causing it to complain rather loudly when
optimizing the rat's nest, if some of a footprint's pins are lettered instead
of numbered.
As a test case, try to break PCB with the following schematic :-)
http://starbase.globalpc.net/~ezekowitz/vanessa/hobbies/projects/powersid-0.2.3.sch
It is composed mostly of "vintage" technology of course, but that's what I
specialize in. :-)
Anyway, it contains a number of custom symbols and footprints, all of which
are either in PCB's and Gschem's stock libraries, or in my gedasymbols.org
repository. It is just complex and varied enough to trigger all three of the
above conditions.
Because of those differing prefixes, gsch2pcb can't find PCB's libraries
without some help, so I use a script with the following one-liner:
gsch2pcb -d /home/vanessa/GEDA/www/user/vanessa_ezekowitz/footprints/ -d /usr/local/share/pcb/newlib/ -d /usr/local/share/pcb/pcblib-newlib/ -d /usr/local/share/pcb/m4/ "$*"
As you probably guessed, the above schematic imports perfectly via this
one-liner.
A couple of minor cosmetic issues also cropped up:
* Since everything starts out gathered together in one corner, the net list
ends up with lots of shorted nets by the end of the import process, which
throws a ton of errors, filling up the log window. I would suggest having
the import function execute the "disperse all" function as soon as all of the
footprints have been placed.
* Line breaks are being left out after all "Cannot change attribute..."
messages, causing lots of long lines in the log window.
--
"There are some things in life worth obsessing over. Most
things aren't, and when you learn that, life improves."
http://starbase.globalpc.net/~ezekowitz
Vanessa Ezekowitz <vanessaezekowitz@xxxxxxxxx>
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