Project files management (was Re: Welcome)

Werner Almesberger werner at openmoko.org
Wed Apr 22 15:21:48 CEST 2009


Laszlo KREKACS wrote:
> When I created two components at home and at work too, merging the two
> component into a
>  final database was really obstacle (altough I do not even remember
> how I resolved it).

Hmm, I'm not sure I understand what you were trying to do, but
couldn't you just have put them into individual libraries ? That way,
you get file-level granularity.

For a larger project, I think someone should maintain a library with
just the items we need, so that only one person has to do the merging,
not everyone on their own.

In general, I agree that library handling is awkward in KiCad. In fact,
it should probably just use the file system as its "module database
engine", much like Python does, and simply not try to implement
anything but the basic operations. I guess it's a bit of the "users must
never see a bare file" philosophy of Windows shining through ...

> But if you model a component in KiCAD, and document it, I can model an
> another one in turn;)

Are you aware of the tutorial ? It's very terse but covers the basics
of component (schematics symbol) and module (footprint) creation.
http://www.kicadlib.org/Fichiers/KiCad_Tutorial.pdf

> My another problem was with KiCAD, that  when I routed all my
> components and I had the pcb traces, after
> that placing a component a little bit away, was really a pain in the
> ass. I moved the component, deleted all
> pcb traces, and I recreated it. It is a lot of work.

That's also how I do it. But then, my boards are usually as densely
packed as possible, so there's a lot of opportunity for the butterfly
effect to work. If I leave a bit more slack, it gets easier.

> I was looking into the schematic pdfs, and I couldnt find any page
> where the pcb traces are shown.
> I found only the component placements. Do such pdf exist? (where I can
> see the traces of each layer)

Openmoko haven't released the Gerbers. I think Steve is looking into
getting permission to do this. Even if some parts have to be "blacked
out", they would be useful as a reference.

- Werner



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