Re: gEDA-user: a pcb level panelizer tool

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> >Step and repeat panelizing means that EVERY tool and report needs to
> >know what the step and repeat factors are, and need to implement a
> >step and repeat feature within them.  That's a waste of effort and
> >prone to errors.
> 
> What tools are we talking about?  I am not at all familiar with PCB, 
> but if it is not an integrated layout tool, then I don't understand 
> the process.

I meant the ones within PCB itself.

> I'm suggesting that the panelization be integrated into PCB rather
> than use a separate tool.

If you're expecting PCB to be a 100% integrated tool, you're likely to
be disappointed.  Not everything is integrated, and we like it that
way.  However, even external scripts can be hooked into the menu
system somehow.

> If this scripting tool is editing the PCB design file, then it has
> to "know" about the PCB file format

PCB has its own scripting "language" that lets external programs tell
it what to do.  So, an external script might just have "paste here"
and "rotate" commands, which PCB runs.

> How is the panelization info stored in source control?  Are you
> editing the script specifically for each design and so have to store
> it?  Why not just make it a part of PCB and have the info stored in
> the source file in the first place?

In my case, because board layout and panelization are independent, and
the panels include more than one board, so I *can't* store it with
just one of the N boards I'm working on.

> The engineer has to spec the entire design.

That's not always the case.

> Although it is "open source", there seems to be one developer and no
> reasonable way to share code modified/created by others.

We certainly don't have *that* problem ;-)

> When I wrap up my work on this project I will be taking a good look
> at other tools including PCB.  If I decide that I need to use it and
> it does not support panelization, I may just do the work.  But right
> now I am trying to understand what has been done and the reasons for
> it.

What is done is ways to merge N different boards into a single board,
using PCB scripts and control programs to merge them, because that's
the kind of panelization we usually need around here.

> Submit it to what???  The layout person (me) has to specify the 
> layout parameters.  I don't understand what you are trying to protect 
> the process from?  I think that there are parts of this that I don't 
> understand and you have not explained.

At my previous job, the people responsible for the releases just
didn't trust the engineers to not try to "cheat the process".  Nothing
went to the customer unless it came from source control and didn't get
touched by the engineers.  Only the release group had the ability to
fiddle, and we didn't.  Only by keeping the engineers away from the
process did we guarantee reproducibility, because if you let the
engineers do it, they're likely to just copy something off their
personal files and give it to the customer, and we have no idea what
that is.

So I got in the habit of not trusting engineers with anything release
or process oriented.  In PCB layout, I'd have one group doing the
board layout, and another group dealing with the fab/assembly/release
issues.

But, that assumes you have many layout engineers and need only a few
release engineers.


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