John Dozsa wrote: > It seems to me that the concept of a "release library" and a > "development library" could support both the newbies and the more > experience user that wants more freedom. The newbie would be directed > to use "release library" symbols with specific footprint attributes and > the experienced user could do his own with "development library" parts.
The problem is that this doesn't scale to multiple organizations working on wildly different *kinds* of projects. A standard "heavy" library would need billions of symbols to be useful. There are too many options. What I now do in gEDA (and used to do in Viewlogic) is to create a library of symbols that corresponds to the parts stock that is to be procured and used for a project or a related set of projects. A "heavy" symbol library is thus an abstract representation of a stockroom. I'll start with the standard "light" library symbols, copy them as needed to the project library, and then add the required attributes. Often I'll include a .txt file with a brief description of how requirements led to the part specification (useful when a substitute must be found). The only other practical solution I can see is inheritance. Something like: TL07X-1.sym inherits graphics and pinorder from opamp-1.sym, adds a SPICE model. TL072-1.sym inherits the above from TL07X-1.sym and inherits slotting from 8_pin_dual_opamp.sym (which has no graphic). TL072CP-1.sym inherits from TL072-1.sym, adds a footprint. etc. John Doty Noqsi Aerospace Ltd.
