On 04/07/2011 04:52 AM, Stephan Boettcher wrote:
PCB layer groups may be used here. Put the short on an extra layer, in an extra group. At checkout time, you can assign the extra layer to the group representing the copper layer that needs shorting. This is probably a single char in the PCB file header, and can be done with a simple sed script.
I like that idea -- at least until someone figures how to have a starpoint symbol and footprint that keeps DRC checking of separate ground planes while still having a short there for fabbing purposes. I'm thinking of two scripts external to pcb, for use with make. While editing a pcb board, I would run DRC and effectively have a non conductive piece of trace between separately named ground planes. When I run make faboutput, one script is run to change the non conductive piece of trace to copper on a layer, then output RS274-X, the run the other script to change the piece of copper on a layer to a non conductive piece of trace. We don't have the concept of non-conductive built into pcb now though, so some kind of "ignore for DRC purposes" might do. There's still a problem with that method though... It won't check for proper clearances of the starpoint blob of copper to other copper if it is handled by an "ignore for DRC purposes" attribute. The real way to have starpoints handled at schematic level is to allow for two different named nets to touch at one overlap. Nets would have to be defined by attributes plus layer connectivity rather than layer connectivity alone. John -- Ecosensory Austin TX _______________________________________________ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
