gEDA-user: Creating Newlib Footprints/Square SMT pads?

[Bob Paddock <bpaddock@csonline.net>]

I have a couple of questions about creating newlib foot prints, specifically
items #3 and #9 in the documentation, which reads:

-------------
8.2.1 Creating Newlib Footprints To create

 1. Start PCB with an empty layout.

 2. Make the component layer active.

 3. For a leaded part, select the via tool and place vias where the pads for
 the part should go. For surface mount pads, draw line segments. Note that
 until the footprint is completed, the surface mount pads will remain
 rounded. Currently a rectangle or polygon may not be used as a pad.

 4. For each via and line segment which will become a pad, select it,
 right-click to bring up the popup menu and choose "edit name". Enter the pin
 number and press enter. Alternatively, you can use the "n" hotkey to activate
 the rename command.

 5. Make the silk layer active.

 6. Using the line and arc tools, draw a silk screen outline for the part.

 7. Using the selection tool, select all of the pins and silk screen for the
 part.

 8. Place the pointer above the reference point for the part. This is 
typically  the common centroid. Keeping the pointer there, right-click to 
bring up the  pop-up menu and choose "convert selection to element".

 9. Under the buffer menu, choose "save buffer elements to  file" to save the
    new footprint to a file.
-------------

Following that verbatim results in the error "Buffer has no elements!", which
is easy enough to fix by selecting the element and copying it to the buffer
before saving the file.

However that leads me to question item number three where it says "For surface
mount pads, draw line segments. Note that until the footprint is completed, 
the surface mount pads will remain rounded". 

When I load my new SMT element it still has rounded pads.  Where did I go 
wrong in getting the element to have square pads when I load it?

This is the element I saved from the buffer, this is not a real part, just an 
example:

Element[0x00000000 "" "" "" 56000 76000 0 0 0 100 0x00000000]
(
 Pad[0 0 0 2000 1000 2000 3000 "" "1" 0x00000000]
 Pad[6000 0 6000 2000 1000 2000 3000 "" "2" 0x00000000]
 ElementLine [-2000 -2000 8000 -2000 1000]
 ElementLine [8000 -2000 8000 4000 1000]
 ElementLine [8000 4000 -2000 4000 1000]
 ElementLine [-2000 4000 -2000 -2000 1000]

 )

When do the square flag bits get set?  I know I can hack them in there but the 
documentation leads one to believe that it happens automagiclly when the part
is converted and saved.