Werner Almesberger wrote:
Wayne Stambaugh wrote:
I like being able to embed this information into my schematics.
I'm still puzzled what you're doing where this approach wouldn't
turn into a nightmare before too long :)
Good points - but - to share some experience over some decades of using cad
packages. This messy
work with numbers that change HAS to be dealt with. (It is one very good
reason to have your own
part numbers that point to multiple manufactures.) It isn't trivial as Dick is
noting.
In the early years - the CAD I used made a BOM that would spit out a list of
reference and part
numbers - and nothing else. I remember writing some spread sheet kludge that
would look up the part
number and fill in the fields and all. It was a terrible mess.
Later they added 'attributes' - AKA field names. During the design phase - some
parts would get
different manufactures etc.. it always happens. I aways would update the
library - in my old
software it would re-grab the parts every time the schematic loaded.
What could be added to kicad would be a way to re-grab all the fields from the
library (perhaps
making updating the foot print optional?) - then the parts only need to be
updated in one place -
the library?
When parts are out of stock, it pays to create an eco file to allow the second
source - change the
info in the library and board and increment the schematic revision number -
and create a new BOM
with the same revision number. (The only issue is that if the buyer is working
from a spread sheet -
they will end up creating notes that can get lost if they don't have good
spread sheet skills).
My hope would be a distributed skeleton that includes some of these fields so
libs are more
sharable. Every new part created would be populated with these field names and
default values. The
user could change this skeleton. The user can also add more fields as needed.
(BTW - I eventually moved to having separate parts for every value of resistor
cap etc. One effect
is it helps reduce the number of unique parts that get specified. It also helps
with using up
existing inventory - the reality is most boards don't really need 40 different
resistor values that
you can end up with if just plugging in a value. )
The above may not make sense for a hobby board - but when dealing with boards
with 300+ parts it
becomes critical. I remember nightmares that happened when a suitable system
wasn't in place..
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Karl Schmidt EMail [email protected]
Transtronics, Inc. WEB http://xtronics.com
3209 West 9th Street Ph (785) 841-3089
Lawrence, KS 66049 FAX (785) 841-0434
If you shake a politician's hand, be sure count your fingers.
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