Re: gEDA-user: gEDA/gaf capabilities

["Duncan Drennan" <duncan.drennan@xxxxxxxxx>]

I was in a similar position a couple of month back, wondering whether
geda/gaf was a capable tool and whether committing to it would be a
good idea. I have only really worked with the schematic editor
(gschem) and the netlister (I use a subcontractor to do layout which
is done in PCAD).

After having worked with gschem and parts of geda for a while, I am
astounded at how powerful and excellent the tools are, as well as how
good the documentation and support is (the support on this list is
amazing and patient).

There is a feature of geda that people underestimate the value of,
mainly because it is something that they have never been exposed to.
Randall hinted at it...

> I end up making a lot of footprints
> myself, but again I have assembled a set of tools that automate that
> to a large extent, so it is not really a big deal.

Open file formats and scriptable programs. Just take some time to
think about what that means. The implications are huge.

All those repetitive tasks that you do can be automated. Creation of
components and footprints can be automated. All the tedious tasks that
integrated and closed packages force on us can be done away with.

Yes, it will take some time to become familiar with the package (as
with any other package) and yes there are limitations (again, as with
any other package). But think about the huge time savings (i.e. money
saving/producing) you can gain from the openness of geda.

Here is an example to think about:

Let's say I have a stock database. Each item has a unique stock code.
Engineers don't care about the stock codes, but they do care about the
component values. The person that orders stock doesn't care about the
values, just the stock code. Lets say an 0603 100k 1% 100ppm resistor
had the stock code R00001. So the engineer goes along and puts down a
resistor in a schematic with a footprint 0603 and value 100k (in this
case he doesn't care too much about the other details).

Once he is done with the design the engineer knows he needs to give
the bom to the person who orders stock and they just want to be able
to order based on the stock codes. So the engineer runs a script which
automatically queries the database and generates a BOM based on the
stock codes. The script can also automatically insert the rest of the
info and the stock code into the schematic. Obviously this can be far
more complicated, but you get the idea.

Those are my thoughts. gEDA fulfils the current requirements of my
business and works well. I'm happy.


_______________________________________________
geda-user mailing list
geda-user@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user