Re: gEDA-user: Units used by software. interesting links)

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> So is there really a need to change the units used in the software
> then ?  I recently switched to gEDA from autotrax because I could
> not line up a 0.45mm DFN package I am now using a lot.  The 1E-5"
> units seem to be more than adequate for this.

I don't think there's much need at the moment, but that doesn't mean
that someone won't need it at some point.  I figure, at some point
we'll put the actual units used in each file, so we can convert
between them as needed.

> Also on the same subject as units - I think it would be nice to be
> able to enter units for foot prints in metric.  Is this possible
> anyway (I did not find refs to metric footprints).

Not directly, no.  Units are centimils (.00001") internally, and in
saved files, except for the old format which uses mils.

> If it's not been done by anyone already I am going to just write
> some kind of parser that does it for me external.

Sounds like a useful tool.  Teach it to allow overrides on a per-value
basis (like my 2pad script does).  I.e.:

      Pin[0.2 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.2 10mil 0.1]

Hmm^2... teach pcb's parser to support a unit suffix on each value!
We only need mil and mm, but the mechanism should allow for more as
needed.  It won't *save* that way, but it lets you read in footprints
with human-simpler values.


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