Hi Richard, Let's take this to the developer's mailing list.
Rather than "append board" as a means of accomplishing this, how about this idea. The MODULE morphs into a BOARD fragment, and you simply have MODULE libraries (wait, we already do). Or you could copy a MODULE from one BOARD to another BOARD via the clipboard. Here clipboard is appropriately named. Currently the points of connection to a MODULE are pads. In this fantasy: *) points of connection to a MODULE would be pads or traces... and ? *) MODULEs would need separate verification before they get put into a library. *) Someone would need to code it. I have no plans to fund this. This fantasy is certainly possible at some point in the future. Dick > I forgot to add, it seems like PCB has the hooks to almost do this, however > when "append > board" is used, it should ask for 2 things, netlist and sheet name, that > would give all > the info needed to associate nets and references. Although I have a feeling > that CvPCB > might need back annotation if footprints don't match during the netlist read. > Anyway, > sorry for the ramble... again, > > Richard > > > On 11/27/2012 04:48 PM, Richard Howlett wrote: >> Hi Dick, >> >> We've talked in the past about KiCad, but a question that has been in the >> back of my >> mind for some time regards the PCB tool. In the VLSI world, the tool chains >> are very >> similar to what you guys are doing with KiCad. The introduction of >> scripting is a >> plus, however the PCB side seems to still be a flat hierarchy unlike the >> schematics >> where full hierarchy is exploited well. I'm guessing that there is a >> balance being >> maintained for the new vs experience user. However, I'm guessing this has >> come up in >> conversation (although I can't find anything on the web) regarding adding >> hierarchy to >> PCB as well. Do you know if this is something that might be on the future >> road map? >> It looks like Miguel's scripting can almost do it >> (http://www.kicad-pcb.org/display/~ajo/2012/05/17/Keeping+your+blocks+aligned+with+scripting) >> but only parts in group, no traces. With a hierarchical approach you would >> draw the >> one group of parts stand alone, and the you would use something like the >> "Append Board" >> function to add each instance of the group (should reference back to the >> hierarchical >> schematic) and the correct reference and net should get assigned. The nice >> thing about >> this approach is the sub pcb artwork doesn't need all the traces (like gnd) >> connected >> because the top PCB artwork is where the DRC must pass. Anyway, a bit of a >> ramble as >> I'm working on something that has the same very complex circuit repeated 10 >> times in my >> present design... Another, side note, I use the schematic hierarchy as a >> way to >> leverage work from past designs, this would give me the same ability on the >> PCB end! >> >> Thanks, >> Richard >> >> Example: (please let me know if there is a way to do this, its entirely >> possible that I >> just haven't looked hard enough) >> >> Schematic Hierarchy >> >> >> PCB Hierarchy (same file name as the schematic above): >> >> >> >> New Project with the same schematic shown above with 3 repeats >> >> >> This is appending the board file but this has seemingly serious issues. >> Nice the have >> the ability to do something like this where each of the PCB instances were >> grouped plus >> the nets and refs were assigned correctly: >> >> > _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
