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

["Samuel A. Falvo II" <sam.falvo@xxxxxxxxx>]

On 6/25/05, harry eaton <bumpelo@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >Turning off auto-DRC-checking is the only way that I was able to
> >successfully connect pins by hand, at all.
> 
> You must not have had any rats nest turned on.

PCB has rats nest turned on by default.  And I keep it on, otherwise,
I lose track of what gets connected to what.

I've finally found a stupid little trick though.  If I draw traces
eminating FROM a pin (never TO a pin, since that violates DRC
parameters apparently), and I change layers as I draw without actually
placing the vias just yet, THEN place vias after I'm done drawing the
trace, I can connect pins without having to turn off DRC.

> Let's see, you can insert points, delete points, move lines, move line
> endpoints, change
> the thickness,what layer it's on, and how much it clears through polygons
> or delete it. You can do this by segements and with a little more trouble
> by whole nets. Before we moved to gtk it was very easy to bind a script
> to a single key that would for example increase the thickness of all lines
> on net by 1 mil. Now it seems like you have to recompile to do that.

I still haven't found these features yet.  For now, I will take your
word that they exist, but looking at the various tools on the window
or in the pop-up menus, nothing really stands out to me as letting me
do any of the things you describe.

What I think would be ideal is if the PCB editor would adopt the same
UI conventions and, where applicable, the same *hotkeys*, as the
gschem editor.  That would alleviate a lot of the need to have to
relearn a whole new UI.  As it is right now, PCB violates pretty much
every GUI standard ever written, with tons of hidden features (and
apparently, features ONLY accessible via the keyboard).  I strongly
urge for the unification between gschem's editor and PCB's editor as
much as is feasible.

--
Samuel A. Falvo II