Re: gEDA-user: gEDA for terminal strip layout?

[Joerg <joergsch@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Steve M. Robbins wrote:
> Hi,
> 

Just for the record: I have a lot of CAD experience but gschem is also 
very new to me so I can only tell you what's customary. I am sure gschem 
can do all this but for now someone else would have to explain how.


> I'm new to the electronic circuit design world and just went through
> the gschem and pcb tutorial on seul.org.  In my case, however, the
> output is not a PCB, but a terminal strip using DIN rail components;
> e.g. connector blocks from Phoenix Contact
> (http://www.phoenixcontact.ca/)
> 
> My dilemma is: for design purposes I'd like to create a nice simple
> circuit diagram of the kind created by pschem; however, for actually 
> building the device I need a second diagram showing the terminal blocks
> and connections between them.  I'm leery of maintaining two separate
> diagrams and would like to have the second generated semi-automatically
> from the first, much like the PCB layout is generated from the schematic.
> 

That is not customary. You normally have three sets of documents:

a. Bare board docs: These are the Gerber, fab instructions etc.

b. Circuit board docs: These contain the schematic, mounting 
instructions, BOM, netlist and so on.

c. Assembly docs: These include the added wiring on a board, also 
drawings for mechanical parts that are added like bracket, shields etc.

Think about it: You might design this board and then some day say "Hey, 
I can also use it for this other project".


> I was wondering whether anyone has ideas about this or experience to
> share.
> 

If you really want to do it (and I also have, showing fiber-optic lines 
on a board that were not part of the electronics) you could draw those 
lines on a secondary layer. CAD systems and probably also gschem have 
several drafting layers. Layers for nets, busses, pins, symbols, plus 
usually some for text and graphics. Use one that is not going to show up 
in the netlist and draw your hookup wiring there.


> If this is not possible, my fallback plan is to give up on a simple
> circuit diagram and use gschem to create a diagram showing the
> terminal blocks themselves.  Has anyone done this?  I didn't see any
> blocks in the device library, but it should be possible to create
> simple rectangular items to represent them.
> 

Check the contributed symbols and footprints:

http://www.gedasymbols.org/

If you don't find them there you have to generate some. Which is a good 
exercise anyhow. You need to become proficient in quickly generating a 
new symbol and footprint.

-- 
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/



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