[kicad-users] Re: Placing components on commercially manufactured prototyping boards
--- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, Dr.WhoDr.Who paulgusci...@... wrote: I am just starting to think about using KiCAD for capturing some small circuit designs so that I can create nice printed documentation. For initial prototypes, and when I expect that I will only create one unit as a simulator, I plan to use commercially manufactured prototyping boards such as the BusBoard Prototype Systems Solderable PC Breadboard http://www.busboard.us/bps-br1.htm http://www.busboard.us/bps-br1.htm . How could one use KiCAD cvpcb and/or pcbnew to show the traces and hole patterns that exist on the commercially manufactured board, then place the components where they will go on the board? I don't believe there's an existing library for this, but there's nothing preventing you from creating a template board file with just the tracks, and then open a copy of that template onto which you would place your components. AFAIK, the design-rule-check (DRC) may not see the pads as connected to the traces unless they land iexactly/i co-incident, so you're assuming more of the responsibility of checking that all and only the right things are connected. With that in mind, however, it should work. Alternately, there is a layout program that's designed to work with stripboard-style protoboards. Kicad can create netlists that it can read, so you will get routing and DRC capability. The program is VeeCAD; it's over at http://veecad.com and there is a free version available. Stripboards are available from various vendors. One I've found on the 'net with decent prices is Futurlec at http://www.futurlec.com/ProtoBoards.shtml
[kicad-users] for the eeschema wish list: rubber banding and ports/flags
Not sure if this has been covered already (the search function for this list seems to be broke). I was thinking it would be nice if KiCad had a one step implementation for rubberbanding wires. Also I think having some sort of flag object to establish non-contiguous connections might be a good idea. I know KiCad uses labels for this, I think flags would stand out better.
[kicad-users] Re: PLEASE help....Anyone out there???
--- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, Greg Dyess gregory.dy...@... wrote: A, now I see what you mean. I will double-check this as I know we had to go back and touch up some of the board edges after the entire board was drawn. This will probably require hand-editing of the .brd file. Greg, If this does not lead to anything, then email me your board file please. dick at softplc.com I will step through the code with it and see why it it not converting properly to DSN. Dick
[kicad-users] Parallel Power Out pins: best current practice ?
Some chips route a power output to multiple pins to share the current more equally. Marking all the pins a Power Out will incur ERC's wrath when connecting them to each other. What's the current best practice for dealing with this ? Two ideas: - make only one Power Out, the others Passive or such - tick off the Power Out vs. Power Out conflict in the ERC settings I don't particularly like neither of them. Any suggestions ? Thanks, - Werner
Re: [kicad-users] for the eeschema wish list: rubber banding and ports/flags
Have you found drag block rather than move block? That does rubberbanding. andy On Thu, 18 Jun 2009 19:42:08 - einazaki668 einazaki...@yahoo.com wrote: Not sure if this has been covered already (the search function for this list seems to be broke). I was thinking it would be nice if KiCad had a one step implementation for rubberbanding wires. Also I think having some sort of flag object to establish non-contiguous connections might be a good idea. I know KiCad uses labels for this, I think flags would stand out better. Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question. Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad. Please visit http://www.kicadlib.org for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library. For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-develYahoo! Groups Links
[kicad-users] Re: gerbview: complement of desired circular arc appears at concave external corners
hi. any update or feedback on the fix? thanks. hwn --- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, bears1bear h...@... wrote: thank you, brian. hwn --- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, Brian Sidebotham brian.sidebotham@ wrote: 2009/5/8 bears1bear hwn@: thanks very much, brian. the extra arc codes in my example were possibly because i took � an existing gerber and kept deleting stuff in a text editor � and loading back into gerbview, repeatedly, until i thought � i had a reasonable example. Hi, I have sent a patch to the kicad-devel list. Hopefully it will be approved and patched in the next few days. It renders your board outline fine, along with a test-case gerber I wrote. Thanks for reporting the bug. Best Regards, Brian Sidebotham.
Re: [kicad-users] Re: PLEASE help....Anyone out there???
Thanks for the offer. I went through all of the $DRAWSEGMENT entries in the .brd file for layer 28 (PCB_EDGES) and found that there was one extra segment and the segments were not contiguous. I painstakingly went through and created coordinates for each board, filled in a spreadsheet and then had Excell export the spreadsheet so that I could put the segments back into the .brd file. Everything worked perfectly from then on. In the future, I will probably use this approach to start the .brd file with precisely-defined edges. It's a lot easier than trying to draw them out in the board editor. Thanks to everyone for all of the suggestions! Greg From: Dick H. d...@softplc.com To: kicad-users@yahoogroups.com Sent: Thursday, June 18, 2009 3:19:09 PM Subject: [kicad-users] Re: PLEASE helpAnyone out there??? --- In kicad-users@yahoogroups.com, Greg Dyess gregory.dy...@... wrote: A, now I see what you mean. I will double-check this as I know we had to go back and touch up some of the board edges after the entire board was drawn. This will probably require hand-editing of the .brd file. Greg, If this does not lead to anything, then email me your board file please. dick at softplc.com I will step through the code with it and see why it it not converting properly to DSN. Dick Please read the Kicad FAQ in the group files section before posting your question. Please post your bug reports here. They will be picked up by the creator of Kicad. Please visit http://www.kicadlib.org for details of how to contribute your symbols/modules to the kicad library. For building Kicad from source and other development questions visit the kicad-devel group at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/kicad-develYahoo! Groups Links
