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Re: gEDA-user: PCB: Connecting Nets by hand

I can certainly sympathize with the way you feel.

There is no way I could count the number of hours I have spent fooling around with this software over the years. I realize that most of this is do to me waffling about trying to come up with a system that works well for me. I have always tried to skip steps, make a board without a schematic, make a netlist by hand with a text editor, use gschem to make the netlist but then skip gsch2pcb and manually pull parts from the library in PCB. All this works, sort of, and I have managed to create quite a few boards over the years, however each time its a whole new learning experience.

In the interim while learning how to fab my own boards, by hand, I have also tried various other packages. I have tried freebie eagle, which works, but has its own quirks and kinks and ultimately leaves you somewhat crippled. Xcircuit, which I found, lacking, its been a while though, and old DOS protel, which had no manual, really couldn't see my printer, hours, tracing down key combos to do everything. At work we even have Orcad full package, and I spent about a week screwing around with it and its databases and all the associated files. But even if I made it through that if I ever leave my job I couldn't afford to use it with its astronimcal licenseing fees.

I keep coming back to geda gschem and pcb, convinced that if I just work out a solid system, this would all fly. I am committed to this software, I know in my heart it is the right thing for me to do. Once I get over the hump of making my symbols for both pcb and gschem I can keep my own parts libraries, with hooks for gsh2pcb and port to PCB.

I just finished spending about 3 days going through the whole process again, I made symbols for gschem using tragsym perl scripts(thanks!). I linked everything the way it was supposed to be in gschem for gsch2pcb to work and ported to PCB. I fixed errors, I got through shorted nets, DRC errors, ground plane problems. I manually routed everything and today got gerbv going and viewed my gerbers. I think I have a board that I could actually send to a fab house if I wanted, whoo hoooo, it looks good. Geda suite has been maturing right along with me thanks all!

The point of all this drivel is that I encourage you to stick with it. I feel you will end up with a system that is very suited to your personal design style, and you will have control over every aspect. These are powerful tools, they are not easy to learn, but worth it for the long haul if this is something you want to keep doing.

Good luck with all your projects, I wish I could be of more help with your particular issues, but still feel like a newbie after all this time. Wish I could offer more then a pep talk.

_later
ED

Samuel A. Falvo II wrote:

Well, I have to say, I am positively disappointed with PCB in its entirety.

First, the nets I'm trying to connect are (a) all connected in the
schematic, and (b) not being fed between pins.  Second, while
hand-routing the design, I used cut-n-paste to replicate the bulk of
the circuit.  This worked pretty well, but after discovering an error,
I went back to gschem to correct the error.  After running gsch2pcb,
it refused to generate a new pcb file, despite a pretty significant
change.  So, I basically have to delete everything in my PCB
directory, and start over from scratch.

Eight hours gone.  That's eight hours of my life I'll never see again.

I'm pretty upset.  There were a number of other "gotchas" during the
use of the software that I positively hated too.  I wish I'd written
them down.

I've almost had it with this. :(