gEDA-user: More robust support of multi-part symbols.

[Kai-Martin Knaak <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I like to use separate power symbols for ICs. However, I constantly hit 
the usability issues associated with this approach. Support for multi-
part symbols is quite fragile. 
For example, gnetlist just checks the footprint attribute  of the first 
symbol it encounters. That is, the footprint actually used depends on the 
relative position of the various parts in the *.sch file. There is no 
check for completeness, no warning if a power symbol is missing. This is 
clearly an invitation for nasty surprises. 

My time schedule is a bit relaxed in the weeks to come. So I thought, I 
might engage in contributing to the geda project by tweaking this aspect 
a little. I figure, that it may not be too difficult for a low time 
hacker like me. This is a list of sub goals for this little project:
  
1) gnetlist should look for a footprint in every instance of a refdes

2) add a known attribute "parts" that lists all symbols of a component
  (should the entries in the list be separated by space, or something
   more sophisticated?)

3) gnetlist should complain if the lists of attributes are inconsistent.

4) gnetlist should complain if there are different footprints present

5) gnetlist should complain if a component is not complete (part missing).

6) gschem should read the parts list and insert all parts at once.

7) auto number of gschem should keep multi-part symbols with the same 
refdes.

Next step would be to treat slotted components like multi-part symbols.

Any comments?

---<(kaimartin)>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Öffentlicher PGP-Schlüssel:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=get&search=0x6C0B9F53



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