Ted Tontis wrote:
> Would there be any interest in a PCB footprint lib. with all
> the parts you would ever need for free. I ask this because I am
> working on trying to get a large lib. in Protel. It would have the
> silk screen, a fence that would be on the last electrical layer to
> avoid component placement conflictions, assembly art work, pin 1 id.
> All parts would be in mm.
Art Zirger started such a task many years ago (back in the Protel 1.x
days); he's not there anymore, but it looks like the workstation hosting
the server is still up at Caltech. See
http://leonardo.caltech.edu/protel/protel.html
This isn't really suitable for the current versions of Protel, but it
might give you an idea of what's involved.
Some of the issues, off the top of my head:
- Naming conventions.
- Differing process rules (I may want a 10 mil pad in one process, 5 mil
in another).
- Slightly different layouts amongst manufacturers.
- Revision control (not specific to this, but an issue with design
databases in general).
- All the random people-related issues involved in coordinating such a
task.
While I agree that getting a library with *all* of the parts I'll *ever*
need together is impossible, certainly it is possible to get a library
with *most* of the parts I need *today*. Heck, if I had a footprint
library for the parts carried by DigiKey/Newark/Allied/etc., I'd be
extremely grateful.
For contributors to such a task, there's an issue with intellectual
property. In my case, for example, I could use such a library at work,
but would have to run all submissions by our legal department. <insert
heavy sigh>
Nonetheless, if you're up to such a task, I'll give you whatever support
I can in my spare time.
Dave Cuthbert
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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