At 11:28 PM 1/3/2002 -0500, Bob Wolfe wrote: >Abdulrahman, >You got it. Sorry I did not see your earlier post before, I just read it >now. >I thought I was pretty clear what I was looking for, but guess it was clear >as mud. >I guess from what you say it really is a bug and should not really function >that way.
Well, there is a bug which has been reported in this thread, which is the bug where left-string, 2 character, coincidence between currently chosen footprint and optional footprint is treaded as full coincidence, but I don't think that is what Mr. Wolfe is mentioning. The rest of it is what could be called a deficiency, an area of function where the program could be improved, but it is not a bug, that is, the program *is* functioning as it was intended to function, it is only that an extended function that some of us might desire is missing. >I will need to experiment with global update a bit more extensively or look >into >doing something with a spreadsheet as suggested, just thought it could be >done within Protels >schematic update function much easier. And that was incorrect. The program does not operate that way, it was not intended to operate that way, and *we would consider it a bug if it operated that way." Once a user has chosen a footprint, that footprint should not be changed because someone changes the footprint *options* in the library. This could have serious consequences, whereas what Mr. Wolfe is missing only constitutes a nuisance, at worst. And there are ways of doing what he wants to do which are almost as efficient as possible in most ways. >Again basically I have this client whose first Orcad schematic was actually >the start of the symbol library for this client, being that the import from >Orcad worked pretty well. The footprint fields came >over fine but were not what I wanted to see on the protel side I devoloped. Right. But you could create a client library with the footprints you like and then changed their names to the ones being used by your OrCAD-using client. This will obviate the need to translate names with every schematic you get from this client..... >So each time I take in a new design I just copy the new symbols into the >existing library. Once they are all there I delete the >cache library that was created upon import and point only to that existing >library. It really seemed like the updateschematic function would work very >well and just automatically replace these footprint names from the library >it was pointing to with just the use of that function. The update schematic function works, that is, it updates *symbols*. It does not update the chosen footprint. In this case, I think it better to simply leave the schematic alone and, instead, create a PCB library with footprint names matching those coming in from OrCAD. If those names are in error, then you will supply corrected names to your client to be used in the future.... > Yes a good library is >a big portion >of any design job, I was just trying to keep that work effort to a minimum >and thought Protel's function >would have done just that. Oh Well. There *is* a minimum amount of work necessary. Someone, somewhere, must decide what footprint to use for a part. In this case, that should ideally be the OrCAD user, who essentially chooses a footprint name. I'm recommending that Mr. Wolfe respect and keep that name unless it is in error, i.e., the client has chosen something other than what he or she would intend upon study, in which case he has a change to be made. Because, instead, *we* often choose footprints for parts at the schematic level, and we would like those footprints to become at least options and perhaps even default options (i.e., the first footprint in the list), we would like to have a way to make the library reflect these choices. Right now, there is no way to do this except to manually go through the library one symbol at a time. I've suggested a utility to fill this need; if someone else does not beat me to it, and if I can find time, I intend to write it. Another utility would translate footprint names according to a list. This also would be easy to write. This would be used where the designer does *not* want to make a client library, using client-chosen names, and instead wants to use his or her own library and library names. But I highly recommend the client library approach. Otherwise the Protel tools are quite well adapted to their purpose... [EMAIL PROTECTED] Abdulrahman Lomax Easthampton, Massachusetts USA * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
