Hi I try to figure out how it would be possible to create a central storage for symbols, footprints and other design data. With central I mean something like a design data server, where it is possible to assign workflows with sign-offs, make proper versioning, assign order numbers and define second sources. (PDM ultra light for KiCad).
I currently work on some projects where we need to be sure that each change on current products gets a proper review and documentation. This always starts with a "Change Request", followed by a "Change Order". To make sure everything is right, we currently use a very expensive EDA suite with even more expensive PDM[2] software. Even if this seems overkill for private projects, a little more lighter version of this workflow makes sens for every company and even for some bigger private projects. I helps to grantees some quality and data integrity. After some analysis how KiCad does things I see some little problems. The first of them is described in the following lines: Currently the footprint and soon[1] symbols will be assigned with a "library nickname"/"symbol name" key. This is also true for the 3D model inside the footprint file. At the moment this is the only reference to the library. If the component in the local file storage changes, the symbol/footprint gets changed immediately in the project and that is exactly what I want to avoid. To make a server based library, each symbol or footprint would need a unique identifier and some way to define the storage location. Say instead of define somelibrary/symbol1 (implicit local storage) define srv://remote1/16fd2706-8baf-433b-82eb-8c7fada847da (explicit remote storage) where remote1 is a configured remote storage location in the app. The fully qualified address of the symbol would then be something like https://myserver.local/lib/uuid/16fd2706-8baf-433b-82eb-8c7fada847da A second possibility would be to introduce a new file (symbol.origin) in the project folder to keep track of every remote stored file. symbol.orign: somelibrary/symbol1=remote1/16fd2706-8baf-433b-82eb-8c7fada847da somelibrary/footprint2=remote1/23fd2706-3baf-223b-82eb-ef7fada847ac After retrival from the central storage, I would save the symbol as libs/somelibrary/symbol1 locally in the project tree. This would have almost no impact on the KiCad code I think. A command can be implemented to verifiy data integrity by getting file hashes of each component from the central server and checking if everything is in sync. A second command to check if a newer version of the symbol is available with the option to update it. To make this work, KiCad would need to track the origin of every 3D model, symbol, footprint... I would appreciate if some one has some input on this topic. [1] https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg26901.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Product_data_management Regards Kevin _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
