Re: gEDA-user: Thindraw and the HID interface... [WAS: Re: pcb segmentation fault]

["Peter C.J. Clifton" <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Mar 6 2009, DJ Delorie wrote:

>Please don't.  I don't mind splitting pins and pads, but I toggle pins
>and vias separately a lot - especially when I want to select them by
>type, check masks or clearances, etc.

Ok, fair enough.

>> For GL (which can do opacity quite easily), some kind of (optional)
>> automatic fading (or just toggling) of surface features like pads
>> might be useful, based on the active layer being worked on.
>
>Or do like we do with the "invisible" stuff?

Sort-of, although invisible is at the bottom of the z-order, and I'm not 
sure quite how it would look if we took the component side pads and drew 
them undereath the active layer.

I guess this depends on whether your UI makes it feel like you're pulling 
the active layer all the way to the top (on top of pads). I'd imagined that 
having pads translucent (or off) so you work "through" them could be 
useful. When I'm reviewing multi-layer boards, I typically turn pads off if 
I'm working with an inner layer, unless I'm wanting context on the exact 3D 
stack-up.

I guess I need to find some time to hack together a UI full of knobs to 
play with these ideas in the PCB+GL code, so we can figure out what works 
and what doesn't.

Just throwing another GUI idea in the works.. something IC design packages 
use it would seem: Fill stipple patterns. Those might be useful to mark out 
island removed areas, keepouts / pour filled regions which haven't yet been 
calculated.

I guess any use of patterning ought to make use of judicioulsy chosen 
defaults. I can't imagine how difficult it would be to teach / help people 
if every class of object could have its drawing modes completely redefined.

(e.g. Is that hatch pattern indicating a locked object, unpoured fill, or a 
keepout region?)



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