Re: gEDA-user: Soft and Hard symbols

[Colin D Bennett <colin@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, 03 Jan 2011 11:25:26 -0500
DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> 
> Stefan Salewski <mail@xxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> > I guess all this was discussed on the list multiple times in the
> > past,
> 
> My thoughts: http://www.delorie.com/pcb/component-dbs.html
> 
> You should be able to defer the selection of packages, pinouts, and
> part numbers until later in the design cycle.

100% right.  There is (1) the schematic, with symbols, (2) the PCB
layout with footprints and tracks, and then there is what I think
should be part (3) a mapping from each schematic symbol to PCB
footprint. Currently in the normal gschem/pcb workflow the footprints
will be defined in the schematic. However, by extracting the
symbol->footprint mapping to a separate (3) entity, you can create
multiple different PCBs from the same schematic, or change footprints
without revising the schematic itself.

In theory you could create a through-hole component PCB and
surface-mount component PCB from the same schematic.  The orthogonality
of these three pieces (schematic, footprint mapping, and PCB layout) is
pleasing to me, but I have to admit that you would rarely find a need
to create different PCBs from the exact same schematic.  Still, by
separating the footprint mapping entirely from schematic capture, you
can stay focused on one task at a time.

Regards,
Colin


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