docs/wiki/geda-gsch2pcb_readme.html

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  13 <h1 id="gsch2pcbgschemtopcbreadme">gsch2pcb (gschem to PCB) README</h1>
  14 <div class="level1">
  15 <pre class="code">gsch2pcb
  16 --------
  17 gsch2pcb is a program that interfaces a set of schematics generated with
  18 with the gEDA gschem to PCB layout files.
  19
  20 gsch2pcb is conceptually similar to the gschem2pcb shell script, but
  21 additionally handles multiple schematics, handles file element footprints,
  22 and removes pc board elements corresponding to components deleted from the
  23 schematics.  It also forward annotates component value changes.
  24
  25 Using gsch2pcb allows you to drive all design changes from the gschem
  26 schematics without the headache of manually keeping PCB elements and
  27 element values in sync.
  28
  29 It requires that the gnet-gsch2pcb.scm file be install into the gEDA
  30 scheme directory.  On Debian this is /usr/share/gEDA/scheme, but see
  31 the INSTALL file.
  32
  33 Typical usage
  34 -------------
  35 1) Create your custom PCB elements and save each one into its own file.
  36    Some compatibility tips if you will be inserting elements into a
  37    layout manually as well as with gsch2pcb:
  38      *  Make the initial &quot;Description&quot; field of these elements the same
  39         as the file name because gsch2pcb depends on this name (which is
  40         the gschem footprint
  41         value) to know when footprints/elements are changed.
  42      *  Make the initial layout-name field (displayed when the &quot;name on PCB&quot;
  43         menu entry is selected) empty (ie &quot;&quot;) so that gsch2pcb
  44         will not delete your element when you want it to be in the layout
  45         even though it is not in the schematic.  You can later edit the
  46         layout-name to be some refdes value, but I&#039;m not sure it makes sense
  47         to name a PCB element that is not referenced in the schematic.
  48
  49    Note: since once a layout element is named PCB won&#039;t let you reset it
  50    to an empty name, a sort of kludge is that setting the first character
  51    of the layout-name to a non-alphanumeric will protect the element from
  52    being deleted by gsch2pcb.
  53
  54    These file elements should be placed in a directory heirarchy that
  55    gsch2pcb will search.  The default directories /usr/local/pcb_lib and
  56    ./packages are searched in addition to any directories you specify with
  57    --elements-dir dirname arguments to gsch2pcb.
  58
  59 2) Create your schematic with gschem.  Make sure each component has a
  60    unique refdes attribute and a footprint attribute that matches either
  61    a PCB m4 element or one of your custom file element names.  Beware of
  62    file element names that collide with PCB m4 macro names (or specify the
  63    use-files option).
  64    Make a project file if you wish.
  65
  66 3) Run &quot;gsch2pcb foo.sch&quot; or &quot;gsch2pcb myproject&quot; if you&#039;ve created the
  67    myproject file.  If you didn&#039;t specify an output name, this will generate
  68    a foo.pcb and a foo.net file.
  69    If you get errors about footprints not found, you need to create PCB
  70    elements for them and repeat this step until you get no errors.
  71    Or, just run gsch2pcb again and it will shift unfound elements to
  72    foo.new.pcb and you can proceed using PCB on foo.pcb if you wish to
  73    fix the errors from inside of PCB.
  74
  75 4) Run &quot;pcb foo.pcb&quot;.  All the elements will be stacked on top of each other,
  76    so move them to desired locations.  Load the netlist file foo.net and
  77    proceed with using PCB.
  78
  79 5) Modify foo.sch and again run &quot;gsch2pcb foo.sch&quot;.
  80    * If components were added, PCB elements for them will be placed in the
  81      file foo.new.pcb.  If components were deleted, the elements for them
  82      will be removed from foo.pcb and the original foo.pcb will be renamed
  83      to a foo.pcb.bak sequence.
  84    * If elements can&#039;t be found for new schematic footprints, then the
  85      unfound elements will be indicated with PKG_ lines in foo.new.pcb
  86      unless you run &quot;gsch2pcb --remove-unfound foo.sch&quot; which will omit
  87      the PKG_ lines so you can go ahead and load foo.new.pcb into PCB.
  88    * Note that If you have added elements to the .pcb layout which
  89      will not exist on the schematics (mounting holes, etc), make sure
  90       there is no &quot;name on PCB&quot; (the gschem refdes) for them or else gsch2pcb
  91      will delete them when they don&#039;t match a schematic refdes and footprint.
  92      You could use the --preserve option to prevent deleting any elements at
  93      all, but this is really not the best way to use gsch2pcb.
  94
  95 6) Run &quot;pcb foo.pcb&quot; and clean up any dangling traces left over from removed
  96    elements.  Load any new elements in foo.new.pcb with the &quot;Load layout
  97    data to paste-buffer&quot; function.  Load the new netlist foo.net.
  98
  99
 100 Caveats
 101 -------
 102 * gsch2pcb uses a gnetlist backend gnet-gsch2pcb.scm, so be sure when you
 103   install gsch2pcb that the gnet-gsch2pcb.scm file gets installed into the
 104   right place.  Look at the INSTALL file in the tarball.
 105
 106 * WARNING:  if you wish to start processing with gsch2pcb any existing PCB
 107   files that have m4 elements and were originally generated with gschem2pcb,
 108   then be sure to run first with at least gsch2pcb 0.4:
 109
 110      gsch2pcb --fix-elements
 111
 112   on the PCB file schematics or else gsch2pcb will want to delete the
 113   m4 elements.
 114
 115 * footprint information is saved into PCB element&#039;s Description fields,
 116   so it&#039;s probably not a good idea to change element Description values
 117   in your layout while using gsch2pcb unless it is a protected element
 118   that has an empty layout-name.
 119
 120
 121
 122 Bill Wilson    billw@wt.net</pre>
 123
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