gEDA-dev: PCB paste layer and exposed paddles

[John Griessen]

Dan McMahill wrote:
> David Carr wrote:
I guess we could
>> do something like look for square pads with a size > Xmm on a side.  That
>> seems a big fragile though.
> 
> That might not be too bad as long as we have a way to specify what X is 
> and something about how a large pad should be broken up. 
> 
> -Dan

The guidelines from manufacturers of land grid arrays are very specific, so
I can see a need for per footprint differences.  We have footprint attribs now,
and this seems like one of their reasons-to-be.  I'll be looking into what it
takes to make a plugin that can search out and generate island arrays of paste
from pad layers.  And then a DRC plugin to check it too.

This kind of function will involve somehow choosing as you go whether the draw_everything routine in draw.c
handles a pcb object, or if a plugin is doing it.  Wouldn't it be nice if plugins did all the
drawing?  And if the code of pcb that chooses what routine draws what object was clear and compact?

John Griessen

-- 
Ecosensory   Austin TX
tinyOS devel on:  ubuntu Linux;   tinyOS v2.0.2;   telosb ecosens1