Re: gEDA-user: gschem, nets, and netlists

[Stephen Meier <smeier@AlchemyResearch.com>]

PCB also dosn't like nets sharing pads. I think the answer is this. Use 
the virtual symbol trick but instead of overlapping their pads put them 
close to each other. Do all of your routing work. Then remove the 
virtual symbol from the schematic and connect the nets. Regenerate the 
net list and load it into pcb. Now you should have your fat traces and 
your skinny traces but you will need to connect the skinny traces to the 
fat traces by connecting the two pads of the virtual element together.

Steve Meier



Bert Douglas wrote:

> Thanks much for the answer Stephen.
>
> I was thinking about post processing the netlist with a python script 
> to remove the virtual component before it gets to PCB.  Do you think 
> this will work?  This would avoid having to place the virtual 
> component, and would avoid DRC warnings.
>
> Can PCB accept "overlapping" nets?  Something like this:
>
> net1 skinny pin1 pin2 pin3
> net2 fat    pin3 pin4
> net3 skinny pin4 pin5 pin6
>
> Thanks much,
> Bert Douglas
>
> Stephen Meier wrote:
>
> > I think you are right in creating a virtual object with two pins to 
> > break your net. PCB will expect a real component for this virtual 
> > object. You will need to create a pattern with two overlaping pads. 
> > However you can expect PCB to complain about the two nets being 
> > shorted together.
> >
> > Steve Meier
> >
> >
> > Bert Douglas wrote:
> >
> > > Hi guys,
> > >
> > > I have a long net.  But some parts of it need to use fat traces. I 
> > > need to communicate this information to the autorouter somehow.
> > >
> > > So I would like to have one gschem net be written to the netlist 
> > > file as multiple nets with assigned names.  Is there a way to do this?
> > >
> > > Or alternatively, is there a way to use a virtual, zero-size, two 
> > > pin component to achieve the same result.
> > >
> > > Thanks much,
> > > Bert