On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 03:34:03PM -0400, Wayne Stambaugh wrote: > On 9/15/2016 2:47 PM, Chris Pavlina wrote: > > On Thu, Sep 15, 2016 at 06:54:59PM +0100, Dan Weatherill wrote: > >> Hi all, > >> I've been using kicad for about 5 years. Recently (mostly with CERN > >> changes - especially differential pair support), it's become suitable for > >> more and more of my more complex projects (I'm switching from Altium > >> Designer). I also have about 10 years experience working on c++ projects, > >> but am not what you would call an "expert". > >> A feature I've been especially missing in Kicad for several projects is > >> something akin to Altium's "harnesses": that is, basically a "bus-like" > >> entity which contains named signals, possibly of different types (e.g. > >> input, output, passive etc). Harnesses are very useful for drawing things > >> like e.g. SPI, I2C, CAN connections which have well defined named signals. > >> Harnesses contain better information than numbered busses for this > >> application, but can help with schematic "overcrowd" when wiring up chips > >> with many signals such as micros, FPGAs etc. This is often a big problem > >> especially in hierarchical designs where to do this using wires requires > >> possibly dozens of hierarchical labels. > > > > I _really_ want this. IIRC I submitted a wishlist item for it ages ago, > > and nothing ever really became of it (and as usual I ran out of time to > > implement it myself). These are hugely useful in complicated designs. > > > >> I've been thinking about implementing this for a while, but have not > >> started > >> due to being aware that eeschema is under fairly major re-factoring at > >> present. > >> > >> With guidance from c4758p on #kicad, I think that this feature could be > >> implemented with the following steps: > > > > For anyone who doesn't know yet, I'm c4757p on #kicad, or c4758p when my > > connection's dodgy ;) > > So your the guy who's been raking me over the coals on irc. ;)
In my defense, raking people over the coals is basically how IRC works. Actually I think the protocol doesn't work properly without it. ;) > > > > >> 1) add two new items in NETLIST_ITEM_T enum, likely called NET_HARNESS and > >> NET_HARNESSLABELMEMBER, which have similar functionality to NET_BUS and > >> NET_BUSLABELMEMBER but for harnesses > >> 2) several changes to connection rules in netlist.cpp (most majorly in > >> pointToPointConnect() and a new function > >> NETLIST_OBJECT_LIST::connectHarnessLabels() ) > >> > >> 3) minor UI additions (harnesses can be just a different colour wire, and > >> harness-to-wire connections at this time can be just the same as > >> wire-to-Bus > >> connections) > > > > In light of the proposal to add line color support to eeschema, I'd like > > to see something different than just a color. They look like this in > > Altium: > > > > http://techdocs.altium.com/sites/default/files/wiki_attachments/231555/Harness+Connector+with+entries.png > > > > A point wrt. UI is that when eeschema is converted to GAL, a good bit of > > the UI code will need to be ported or thrown out. I don't think that > > should necessarily stall development, but I'd warn you to be prepared > > and write your code to be properly modular and easy to port. :) > > > >> > >> The main question usability wise would be how to label harnesses. I see two > >> possible options: > >> 1) new syntax: a harness has a label using new type of brackets, with > >> harness type in brackets, e.g. an I2C bus called A would be "A{I2C}". The > >> wires would be then labelled exactly like bus labels, e.g.: "A[SCL], > >> A[SDA]" > >> > >> 2) bus-like syntax: using same brackets as bus syntax, but make a harness > >> when the contained type is a string rather than numbers, i.e. "A[I2C]" for > >> harness label, "A[SCL], A[SDA]" for harness members. > > > > I haven't given this a huge amount of thought yet. Does anybody see a > > reason for this to me more than just a stylistic detail? We discussed > > this a bit on IRC and concluded that it would matter if harnesses were a > > subclass of buses, but if they're a separate object I don't think so. > > > >> > >> > >> I guess there are implications for the schematic file system which I need > >> to > >> understand, and need to be discussed. > > > > As far as I can see, we just need to add a 'harness' type similar to the > > 'bus' type. > > > >> > >> All suggestions welcome, and I hope to start working on this soon. > >> Thanks, > >> Dan W > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > >> Post to : [email protected] > >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > >> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > Post to : [email protected] > > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : [email protected] > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp _______________________________________________ Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers Post to : [email protected] Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
