Re: gEDA-user: Parts!

[Bill Gatliff <bgat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Joerg wrote:
>
>
> Yes, that could be done but requires the user to be more diligent. Or 
> some warning mechanism like "You cannot start this name with D2PAK".
>   

PCB must already have code somewhere to tell when polygons intersect, 
which suggests that code could be written to tell if two footprints were 
"roughly equivalent".  Then the system could scour footprint 
specifications to find similar ones, regardless of their name.

Point is, once the system determined that you had an 0603-packaged 
device, it might be able to then identify "compatible" footprint 
specifications for the part that already exist, and allow you to select 
between them.

And one way to for the system to learn that you were referring to an 
0603-packaged device would be for someone to tell it how to decode part 
numbers.  For example, Xircon's resistors have names like "301-30-RC" 
(1/16W 5% 0603 chip resistor), so if someone created/specified a device 
with that or a similar part number, it would hit on some magic token 
that would then be map-able to 0603-compatible footprint specifications.

A better example might be the MAX232, or nearly anything that begins 
with "MAX": if it ends in CPE+, then it's a 16-pin PDIP part.  Not sure 
if that's universally true, but hopefully you get the idea of what I'm 
talking about.

Yea, it's a few layers of indirection.  To say the least.  :)


b.g.

-- 
Bill Gatliff
bgat@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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