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Re: gEDA-user: subcircuit definition and channelised design



On Tue, 2011-03-15 at 15:50 +1100, Geoff Swan wrote:
> I have been describing multiple channels in gschem by turning a
>    subcircuit into a symbol that I can then add multiple times as
>    required.
> 
>    This works well, however I have been wondering if it may be plausible
>    to create a script or plugin that allows you to add the symbol
> 
>    once and then indicate the replication and connections through
>    something like bus notation?
> 
>    Eg:
> 
>    I have a subcircuit with one control input.
> 
>    The micro that connects to the subcircuit is given netnames on the
>    appropriate pins SS1, SS2, SS3, SS4.
> 
>    The control input pin on the subcircuit symbol is given the netname
>    SS[1:4]


FWIW, Altium Designer supports this. A friend who uses Altium showed me
the feature, and described it as "special magic". He was using it
though, so it was obviously useful for him.

Altium's "harnesses" are incredibly close to what a number of us have
talked about wishing to support in regards heterogeneous arbitrarily
nested buses. Altium's buses are homogeneous, and I'm not sure how the
above feature would work if the sub-designs had a bus input.

I can't recall if this was replicated onto a bus of busses (I'm not sure
if Altium supports this anyway), or if they had to be wired up
individually.

[snip]

>    (This may sound familiar to folks who have used altium - I suspect I am
>    ripping off their notation)

Ah - you're familiar with the Altium feature.

>    I am relatively new to gEDA - so I thought I would find out if this is
>    theoretically possible (or been done before) before I start trying to
>    write my own script...

Lots is possible, but I'm not sure how you would best go about it.
gEDA's bus support is almost non-existent... it is just a graphical
nicety, and relies upon named nets. (I vaguely recall that Altium buses
can work like this too if you want)


-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)
Tel: +44 (0)1223 748328 - (Shared lab phone, ask for me)

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