Re: gEDA-user: Place to submit PCB footprints

[Dan McMahill <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

DJ Delorie wrote:
> > Can you make a place on pcb.sourceforge.net or geda.seul.org to submit
> > PCB footprints? We have just made a footprint for Bourns CM45 SMD coil.
>
>
> We've talked about this before.  I don't know if SF has the technology
> to do it, but there was also a concern about abuse.  We'd have to have
> some sort of validator that proved (1) it was actually a symbol or
> footprint, and (2) it was syntactically correct.  I don't think we
> solved that problem, although I think there's a wiki somewhere.

The biggest thing which has prevented me from try to open up a way for 
more footprint contributions is a clear policy on how they are made.  In 
particular

1) naming convention.  I'm in favor of using the latest IPC 
recommendation here whenever possible.  What I want to avoid is 27 
versions of the same thing.  so8 SO8 SO-8 SOIC-8 8_pin_soic, etc.

2) style -- did you include appropriate silk?

3) general QA.  I've seen some awful footprints in commercial libs, 
corporate libs, and pcb libs.  I'd like to not feed things in without 
some quality checks.  This is especially true when a number of 
footprints are developed and "verified" via hand soldering or without a 
silk screen and not evaluated for machine assembly or long term solder 
joint reliability.

4) a better way for versioning the footprints and updating footprints in 
an existing layout.  The current method isn't great.  Basically, to 
update footprints, one way is delete the ones you want to update, run 
gsch2pcb to pull in the new ones and then replace them.  I'd rather have 
a way for a footprint to know where it came from and how to see if it is 
up to date and then a way for the user to say "update this one leaving 
it in the same spot with the same rotation".

-Dan