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Subject: [geda-user] Some PCB usability questions wrt RefDes text, bom
From: "Richard Rasker (rasker AT linetec DOT nl) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 2016 22:13:52 +0200
Organization: Linetec
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Hello,

As my projects contain ever smaller parts, I'm running into some old
usability issues with RefDes text. I have two questions that hopefully
have a simple answer (although searching this mailing list and the
Internet hasn't turned up anything):

RefDes text size:
When importing schematics from gschem, the RefDes text scale always
starts out at 100%, even with Text Scaling set to 50% in the Size
Preferences.
The only way I found to resize all RefDes text at once is to have an
external script replace the value 100 with 50 at the end of each
Element[] definition (or do a Search & Replace in a text editor).
Note: I also tried using the : ChangeSize action (e.g.
ChangeSize(Selected, 50), but that doesn't appear to work for selected
RefDes text.
Only with the S and Shift+S keys can I change text stepwise, but that
doesn't give much control and even messes things up rather awkwardly(*).

Question: Is there a simple way to change or set the RefDes text size of
all selected elements?

        *: When opening a PCB in metric (millimeter) sizes with
        grid=0.05 mm, 50% text size gives me 0.5715 mm text height with
        Ctrl+R. 
        After pressing S, this becomes 0.8230 mm.
        Then, after subsequently pressing Shift+S, the height does not
        return to 0.5715, but 0.5601. OK, not much of a difference, but
        at each S/Shift+S, a few percent is lost. Weird.
        But it gets weirder: when opening the exact same PCB, but
        setting the grid from 0.05 mm to 0.1 mm before doing anything
        else, pressing S now resizes the text from 0.5715 to 0.6626 mm
        -- quite different from the previous resize to 0.8230. Yet
        pressing Shift+S does again result in 0.5601 instead of 0.5715.
        This same step problem also crops up in other +/- step values,
        such as grid and line size: even with everything defined
        correctly, I need to explicitly set a metric grid size through
        the view menu in order to get predictable step behaviour.
        

RefDes text selection when dragging components:
With anything below 0805 size, I usually don't even try to put RefDes
text next to the component; I resize the text to 50% and put it in the
component footprint, to avoid messing it up with other RefDes text and
elements (which of course are placed very close by, otherwise I wouldn't
need those small footprints). 
This, however, has the drawback that moving the component becomes more
cumbersome -- as the RefDes text always is selected over anything else
when clicking the mouse on a component, I either have to move the text
away first, then move (and/or rotate) he component, and move the text
back again; or I have to select the complete component including the
RefDes text, and drag it in its selected (highlighted) mode. But this
latter method still doesn't work for rotation.

Question: Is there a simple way to avoid dragging/rotating just the
RefDes text, but instead indicate that the dragging/rotation action
should be performed on the component itself, including the RefDes text?
A mouse key modifier would be the best way, since of course it's still
desirable to move/rotate the RefDes text separately.


And finally, a question about PCB's bom file export:
In gschem, I defined attributes for manufacturer, manufacturer part
number and some other important attributes for components.
Unfortunately, PCB's BOM export gives only the quantity, the footprint,
the value, and the RefDes list of each particular type of component. Any
other fields defined in gschem are ignored. yes, I can see and edit
these fields in gattrib, but there, each separate component is listed,
instead of being collated by component type.

Question: Is there a way to tell PCB which attributes should be included
in the exported BOM file, and in which order?

Thanks in advance,

Best regards,

Richard Rasker

Linetec