X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f
X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
X-Virus-Status: Clean
X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.98.4 at av01.lsn.net
Message-ID: <54E4F42D.2090600@ecosensory.com>
Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2015 14:21:01 -0600
From: John Griessen <john AT ecosensory DOT com>
User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:31.0) Gecko/20100101 Icedove/31.4.0
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: [geda-user] Star connection points in PCB? (intconn)
References: <1502170242 DOT AA18887 AT ivan DOT Harhan DOT ORG> <alpine DOT DEB DOT 2 DOT 00 DOT 1502170501000 DOT 7324 AT igor2priv> <54E354D4 DOT 3040509 AT ecosensory DOT com> <mc1k0k$oaa$1 AT ger DOT gmane DOT org> <alpine DOT DEB DOT 2 DOT 00 DOT 1502181026470 DOT 7324 AT igor2priv> <mc1th7$mn5$1 AT ger DOT gmane DOT org> <54E4D15E DOT 4000202 AT ecosensory DOT com> <alpine DOT DEB DOT 2 DOT 00 DOT 1502181902380 DOT 7324 AT igor2priv>
In-Reply-To: <alpine.DEB.2.00.1502181902380.7324@igor2priv>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

On 02/18/2015 12:05 PM, gedau AT igor2 DOT repo DOT hu wrote:
> That would result in separate copper pads that find.c thinks are magically connected but are not connected in reality (unless you
> soldered a component or wire on them that realizes the "internal connection").

I was thinking of a large pad in the center that connects them with copper.  So that the footprint itself is
the component.

On 02/18/2015 03:26 AM, gedau AT igor2 DOT repo DOT hu wrote:>
 > My proposal makes this more explicit because the non-overlapping parts of the pads would be sticking out, like bristles of a
 > hedgehog and there is an 1:1, visible connection between a pad and nets. Just like with connectors now.

How to do like that?  I guess intconn does not do it, I've also been confusing it too.





The description of how to create a star connection component could be:

The "Star connection point" has one more pin than the number of nets desired to connect
as one physical net with branches that star outward from the star point.

The pins around the edges pass drc by spacing apart from each other, but overlap a central pad
that connects them all.

DRC rules allow a short to go unreported in a radius from the center of the "Star connection point".

One pin has an attribute "highest_name" whose value could be VCC or GND or XXX.  The others lack that
attribute, and might have netnames like VCC-A1  VCC-D1 VCC-D2...


Netlisting creates a netlist with the "highest_name" value on all of the nets attached to all the pins
of the "Star connection point".  PCB would be able to highlight or associate netname with paths and pads,
and optionally associate of highlight or match netlist to "highest_name" and all that touch it through
the star point.