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Luciani.org PCB Footprint FAQ

Installation

I have your footprint library. How do I install it?

I create a single directory for PCB footprints. In this directory I place footprint files and symlinks to footprint files.

To create a PCB from a schematic I run the following command:

gsch2pcb --use-files --elements-dir PACKAGE_DIR SCHEMATIC_FILENAME

where PACKAGE_DIR is the name of the PCB footprint directory and SCHEMATIC_FILENAME is the name of the gschem schematic file to to be used to create the PCB.

Alternatively, if you create a PCB project file you can define a set of search directories. The gEDA/PCB Tutorial contains information about how to create project files.

I prefer to place all "production-ready" footprints in a single directory that is not in the PCB install tree. When a new version of PCB comes out I do not make any changes to project files or libraries. If there are newlib parts in the PCB library that I want to use I can symlink (or copy) them to the "production-ready" footprint directory. If there are oldlib parts that I want to use I use this script to extract the element commands to a file.

M4 Libraries

How do I force gsch2pcb to look for file footprints before m4 footprints?

Use the --use-files switch on the gsch2pcb command line.

How do I view the element commands used to create an oldlib footprint?

Run M4 on the package file.

The following script is from the PCB documentation (with minor modifications):

#!/bin/bash

PCB_M4_DIR=/local/pub/pcb-20040215/share/pcb/m4

for package in $@
do
echo "PKG_$package(\"\", \"\", \"\")" | \
   m4 -I$PCB_M4_DIR common.m4 - | \
   awk '/^[ \t]*$/ {next} {print}' | \
   more
done

Modify PCB_M4_DIR to match your environment.

Where is the path to the M4 footprint libraries set?

The path is set in the (define m4-pcbdir "") line in the following files:

MY_GEDA_DIR/share/gEDA/scheme/gnet-PCBboard.scm
MY_GEDA_DIR/share/gEDA/scheme/gnet-gsch2pcb.scm

where MY_GEDA_DIR is the directory where you installed the gEDA suite.

for gsch2pcb you can explicitly set the M4 footprint library on the command line -

gsch2pcb --m4-pcbdir YOUR_M4_PACKAGE_DIR --elements-dir YOUR_NEWLIB_PACKAGE_DIR SCH_FILE_NAME