gEDA-user: Two things ... or actually, three

[Richard Rasker <rasker@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

First of all, I would like to express a huge "thank you" to all the
people who built and contributed to gEDA. I recently finished a largish
project with hundreds of devices and thousands of nets, and I got the
work done without a hitch. I find that gschem, PCB and other gEDA
building blocks are amazingly powerful tools.
I'd really like to contribute something back -- but as I'm not really a
proficient coder (otherwise I wouldn't be asking the question below),
simple things like symbols and footprints is all I can think of. And oh,
I can do translations. Suggestions are welcome, although I probably
won't get round to spending much time on anything until this summer.


Then two more usage questions:
- Zero length lines in PCB: I found that when drawing lines in PCB,
sometimes dots (zero length lines) get created inadvertently on corners
and bends. This isn't much of a problem, until I start dragging lines
and end points in rubber band mode: those dots then get stretched into
undesired line segments which I sometimes don't notice until I get DRC
errors and warnings about short circuits. 
Do I recall correctly that someone created a script to filter out those
zero-length lines? I can't find anything in the mailing list archives,
and it turns out that a regex recognizing Line[X Y X Y ... ] doesn't
seem all that trivial to construct.

- Work flow of newer gschem/PCB version: until recently, I worked with
an ïolder PCB version (20080202), but I finally got round to compiling
and installing the latest version -- and it's quite an improvement (no
more disappearing crosshairs, outlines and other GUI imperfections).
Now I was used to the work flow of gschem -> [update pcb in] xgsch2pcb
-> PCB, but this appears to have changed. Now I think I can find out by
myself, but being a lazy person, I wondered if someone could explain
this in a few words. Do I also need a newer gschem version? And has
anything changed with regard to custom created symbols and footprints
(as in: how do I make the new gschem and PCB versions aware of their
existence?).


Anyway, thanks once again, and please tell me if e.g. footprints or
symbols I created are welcome (and where I can send these). I could also
put them online on my own server, although I'd first like to add
descriptions and (pointers to) manufacturers' datasheets, so that it's
clear what part a particular symbol or footprint actually refers to.

Best regards,

Richard Rasker



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