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From:	Kai-Martin Knaak <knaak AT iqo DOT uni-hannover DOT de>
Subject:	Re: [geda-user] when pcb disperse command loses elements
Date:	Fri, 28 Aug 2015 21:06:16 +0200
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Matt Rhys-Roberts  wrote:

> I found that 'disperse all elements' causes some footprints to
> disappear, unless I make my board size bigger.

You probably identify the boundary of the working area with the boundary 
of your layout. This is the way how pcb behaves by default unless the user 
specifies an explicit boundary. To specify a boundary, just put a closed 
loop of tracks on a dedicated layer called "outline". The gerber export 
considers the middle of the tracks the outline of the layout and emits the 
respective commands. The outline can be any shape including arcs.

I usually make the working area about triple width and height of the 
intended board size. This leaves enough room for all the dispersed 
components and an empty outline on the bottom half of the working area. 


> Q2) Please can anyone tell me how to select all component designators
> within the range 100-199, or 200-299, etc? I'm having difficulty working
> with the regex when using 'select by name'.

Try this search string:
	[A-Z]*1[0-9][0-9]

Translation:
  [A-Z] → any upper case letter
  * → the previous item as many times as can be fit. Includes zero times.
  1 → the character "1"
  [0-9] → exactly one digit

Because of the * the expression will also match strings like "PAD123".
I too had a bit of a hard time wrapping my head around regular 
expressions.
 
---<)kaimartin(>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak                                  tel: +49-511-762-2895
Universität Hannover, Inst. für Quantenoptik      fax: +49-511-762-2211	
Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover           http://www.iqo.uni-hannover.de
GPG key:    http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=Knaak+kmk&op=get

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