Hi all, As a crazy thought related to having the board capture orphan pads under an parent footprint, conceptually what about a pcb being represented as a hierarchy of footprints.
>From what I understand most elements of a board can be included in footprints except for tracks. If tracks could be included as part of a "footprint" would it not be possible to export a group of footprints and tracks as a new reusable section of already laid out components. Regards Russell On 30 Jan 2016 04:29, "jp charras" <[email protected]> wrote: > Le 29/01/2016 16:57, Tomasz Wlostowski a écrit : > > On 29.01.2016 16:49, Chris Pavlina wrote: > >> Oh, it's definitely a dirty hack - but it's a dirty hack that is > somewhat > >> necessary, and used to be possible, and now it's not, so... regression, > dude! > >> :) > >> > >> Yeah, yeah, I'm a spacebar heater, I know... :D > >> > >> https://xkcd.com/1172/ > >> > > No, you're not :) I perfectly agree with your reasoning and I'll add an > > option to disable component removal. > > > >> I'd argue that while using a footprint as a via is a dirty hack, the > simple > >> concept of allowing footprints on the PCB that aren't on the schematic > is > >> *not*. Lots of people want to be able to place things like mounting > holes > >> without having to put them in the schematic. (Whether or not that's best > >> practice is beside the point, it's very common.) > > > > Most tools I've used require that the components on the schematic fully > > match the PCB, but they also allow drawing mounting holes as 'free' > > pads. This is another limitation of pcbnew - in Eagle/Altium you can > > just draw an arbitrary pad straight on the PCB. > > " In Kicad, it requires a footprint (and so the sch/pcb inconsistency)." > > This is not true. > In Pcbnew, pads can live outside a footprint. > (They are used in the pad properties editor) > > But without a footprint, you cannot manage easily the net of this pad. > Just because schematic knows only footprints, the net of the orphan pads > cannot be managed by the schematic. > > Therefore users have to manage the net of these orphan pads *by hand*. > and these pads create sch/pcb inconsistency > AFAIK, Altium has not solved this issue (sch/pcb inconsistency). > > To fix this kind of issue, we need a good idea, not just mimic what is > made in Eagle/Altium. > I have already used Altium, and worked with guys who are using Altium, > but I am not a Altium specialist. > I have seen some very good and powerful ideas (rooms), and some less > good ideas (Well, I was not impressed by ERC and net management) > > My preferred idea (I am not saying this is a good idea) is to consider > the board itself as a parent footprint these "orphan" pads. > > Power connections could be managed at schematic level by something like > a few test or connect points ( pins of the board, seen like a footprint) > connected to the nets (usually GND, VCC ...) we want to connect to > these "orphan" pads > Stitching vias could be some of these "orphan" pads. > You do not need a footprint by pad: only one footprint is enough. > > I am pretty sure this is not a lot of work to code that. > At least less than trying to manage stitching vias as standard vias. > > > > > Cheers, > > Tom > > > -- > Jean-Pierre CHARRAS > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : [email protected] > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp >
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