Re: gEDA-user: PCAD to GEDA (GSCHEM)

[Steven Ball <hamster@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Nov 28, 2007, at 9:53 AM, Dan McMahill wrote:

> Peter Clifton wrote:
>> On Wed, 2007-11-28 at 12:41 -0300, Alex Lopes Pereira wrote:
>>> Does someone knows how to convert a schematic made in PCAD to gEDA
>>> gschem ?
>>>
>>> Thanks a lot,
>>> Alex
>>
>> Not off the top of my head, but if PCAD has a "human" readable format
>> (e.g. can be opened in a text editor, and makes "some" _sense_), we
>> could probably have a stab at writing a simple converter.
>
> I believe there is an ascii format option.  Many years ago (before
> moving to pcb) I used Accel EDA (what PCAD used to be called) for the
> layout of a patch antenna with microstrip feed network.  It was  
> terribly
> suited for something like that where the layout is the circuit.  I  
> ended
> up writing an awk program which spit out an ascii file that Accel  
> could
> read.  My memory is that the file format was not documented but not  
> too
> hard to figure out.

I have a ton of old schematics in PCAD 8.7, which runs on DOS.  If  
there was a way to import them to gschem, I'd be pretty darn happy.  I  
also have a ton of PCAD PCB files as well, which would be neat to get  
into PCB, but...

I don't know where to start to make something like this happen, but if  
anyone needs a complex example of a PCAD schematic/PCB, let me know,  
and I would be more than happy to provide.  I have symbols/footprints  
too that I'd love to convert.  I'm pretty good at programming and  
could help out with the effort once I got up to speed a bit...

It would be really neat if there was a way to generalize the whole  
thing, like, take a Gerber backwards into PCB and gschem.  Like, pull  
it into PCB, mark up what footprints belong to what component,  
generate a netlist, and something of a start for a schematic.  Would  
make the whole geda suite really compelling for new users if they  
could import old designs.

All new designs I do are with geda tools.  I'm more than happy to help  
support this project in exchange for knowing I am not going to get  
stuck in a bind with a dongle.

-Steve




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