Mail Archives: geda-user/2017/06/29/22:12:14
On Fri, 30 Jun 2017, karl AT aspodata DOT se wrote:
> Igor2:
>> the following video demonstrates how to use subcircuits to specify the
>> outline and mounting holes of a board:
>>
>> https://archive.org/details/subc-box2
>>
>> The subcircuit can be then reused easily for fitting other boards in the
>> same box.
>
> Grouping things and moving it as a whole would be wery welcome.
>
> Though for just this case showed in the video, you could use a
> footprint as I have in:
> http://aspodata.se/git/openhw/share/pcb/_mechanical/bopla_euromas_210.fp
> I just wounder how to convert that to a subcircuit.
Please note the difference: in a footprint, you can not draw on the
outline layer, only on the silk layer. In a subcircuit you can draw on any
layer.
So the footprint you linked is not the shape of the board, only a hint on
the silk layer. If you want a fab to mill your board to this shape, you
need to split up the element and move each line/arc to the outline layer
manually. Or you need to manually trace the silk graphics with outline
lines and arcs.
It's the good old "why can't I have <whatever object on whatever layer> in
a footprint?" problem. That's what subcircuits solve at the moment, as you
can have any of the basic drawing primitives on any layer in a
subcircuit. Outline in this example, mask cutout in the other example
video, paste, negative paste, polygon on silk, non-pad copper arcs on any
layer, etc.
>
>> Testing is welcome!
>
> Too busy now, sorry, but your and Erichs work sounds very promising.
>
>> A summary about the technical details at the current standing after 4
>> weeks of development:
>>
>> http://repo.hu/projects/pcb-rnd/devlog/20170629_subc.html
>
> Would be interesting to see how the idea with the aux layer plays out.
>
> In "on-screen indication of subc" you mentions largish elements.
> When I design in a enclusure I use footprint for the enclosure and by
> definition all other things comes inside that footprint. How would this
> new indication help ?
The corner case is when you have pins/holes/pads far apart in an element,
but no silk. In that case, looking at the the drawing, you only see there
are a few pins in the left, a few pins on the right, but it's not obvious
it's all for the same element. In other words you don't see the bounding
box of the element, so it's not clear that all the empty space between the
two sets of pins "belong" to the element. You click in the middle of the
empty space, and it suddenly xor-draws the bounding box of the element
(for a drag&drop move) - that's how you realize it's there.
Then you rather lock it to avoid accidental grabs while working in the
middle, but then it's even harder to see that the two sets of pins are
really in the same element because you can't get the bounding box by
dragging the element.
As an user, this forced me to draw a silk box around my element even if I
didn't really need a silk box there.
As you see on the video, subcircuits have a dashed thin red rectangle
drawn on their boinding box. This happens automatically on screen. The
above example with the pins-far-apart this means you see there's a
large subcircuit above the empty space. (On exports this indication
doesn't show up). Because of the xor-drawn dashing, it never looks like
anything else you draw.
Regards,
Igor2
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