gEDA-user: good idea - bad idea ?

[Andy Peters]

On Jan 3, 2007, at 3:39 PM, John Luciani wrote:

> On 1/3/07, Andy Peters <devel at latke.net> wrote:
>> On Jan 3, 2007, at 3:09 PM, John Luciani wrote:
>>
>> > On 1/3/07, Ostheller, Joel A. <JOEL.A.OSTHELLER at saic.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> I can not get gsch2pcb / pcb to stop using the M4 library as a
>> >> default.
>> >
>> > What does your gsch2pcb command line look like?
>> >
>> > Are you using the --use-files switch?
>> >
>> > gsch2pcb --use-files --elements-dir ~/YOUR_FOOTRPINT_DIR
>> > SCHEMATIC_NAME
>>
>> --use-files doesn't cause gsch2pcb to ignore the m4 libraries.  Maybe
>> a switch can be added to gsch2pcb: --no-m4-libs ??
>
> It will cause the newlib files to be used first. Wasn't the original
> problem that the M4 libraries were used first?

That seemed to be the problem.  However, --use-files didn't seem to  
do what it was supposed to do.  In other words, even though I did

$ gsch2pcb -v --use-files --elements-dir /Users/andy/Library/gEDA/pcb  
power.sch

gsch2pcb still searched for m4 libraries first.  I know this because  
the spiel from the command would say

____
C11: have m4 element 0805, but trying to replace with a file element.
	Found: /Users/andy/Library/gEDA/pcb/jcl/0805
C11: added new file element for footprint 0805 (value=0.1uF)
____
: have m4 element , but trying to replace with a file element.
	No file element found.
: added new m4 element for footprint 	(value=)
----

The unknown entry below C11 is one of the chips that called out that  
SOT223- footprint.

When you delete or move the m4 libraries, running gsch2pcb (with  
exactly the same command line), you get an error message saying

/sw/bin/gm4: /sw/share/pcb/m4/common.m4: No such file or directory

which is expected, because it was deleted.  Now gsch2sch doesn't  
search the m4 libs and the unknown part is no longer unknown:

____
C11: need new file element for footprint  0805 (value=0.1uF)
	Found: /Users/andy/Library/gEDA/pcb/jcl/0805
C11: added new file element for footprint 0805 (value=0.1uf)
____
U1:  need new file element for footprintf SOT223-230P-650W-356L-4N  
(value=LM317EMP)
	Found: //Users/andy/Library/gEDA/pcb/asp/SOT223-230P-650W-356L-4N
U1:  added new m4 element for footprint SOT223-230P-650W-356L-4N    
(value=LM317EMP)
----

So it looks like gsch2pcb doesn't honor --use-files in the expected  
manner.

-a