Thanks Jon - I don't have access to Altium so that's really helpful. I was wondering about the possibility of locking components; I sometimes want to do this with, for example, key ICs - MCUs, DACs, etc. One could add this as a Symbol Property, which wouldn't need any changes to file formats. Whether it got a custom checkbox in the Symbol Properties dialog, or would just be there as another option that a user may add (which would make it a 'power user' feature as it wouldn't be obvious unless one knew to add it) would need to be considered - UI clutter vs. access to features for all.
With the multi-part consideration, where on the schematic does it dump the new components? It wouldn't be too difficult to implement an algorithm which finds a space in which all the sub-components required could fit, with some gross assumptions on layout. Or can Altium add a component to the BOM without it being on the schematic? I'm also mindful that some algorithms can't solve everything (although this strikes me as a non-trivial problem, rather than an impossible problem...) - and bailing out and telling the user why is also always a option, in the spirit of 'do no harm'. Yours, James. On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 9:59 PM Jon Evans <j...@craftyjon.com> wrote: > Altium doesn't have "annotate selected" > It does let you lock the annotation on components at will, so you can lock > some, reset everything (which ignores locked) and then re-annotate. > If you change the annotation of one part of a multi-part component, it > will result in two components being forwarded to the PCB like Janvi > proposes. > And also likewise, the ERC will warn about this if configured > appropriately. > > As to how it handles the complex hierarchy situations JP mentioned, I'm > not certain to be honest, because Altium's hierarchy model is a bit > different from KiCad's (in some ways simpler) and I haven't checked to see > if the same situations are possible. > > -Jon > > On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 4:48 PM James Jackson < > james.a.f.jackso...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> That's an interesting take on it. I can foresee the catastrophic addition >> of loads of other components though, if there's an error in the schematic >> somewhere and a rogue missing / one-over unit gets cascaded down sheets. >> >> What do other EDA tools do with annotation? Do they have this feature? Do >> they handle these conditions? >> >> On Thu, May 7, 2020 at 8:18 PM ja...@veith.net <ja...@veith.net> wrote: >> >>> > - What about multi-units components: for instance what about renaming >>> 2 of 5 units when one unit is the unit handling the power pins? >>> > this is the best way to break a design. >>> >>> This should add another component to the BOM and schematic DRC should >>> report unused gates for both of the reference designators >>> >>> > Good luck with block annotation. >>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers >>> Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net >>> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers >>> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp >>> >> _______________________________________________ >> Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers >> Post to : kicad-developers@lists.launchpad.net >> Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers >> More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp >> >
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