Re: gEDA suite vs my creaky old Protel Client 3.5?


Stuart Brorson <sdb@xxxxxxxxxx> writes:
> : 8 layers, or 6 plus two power planes, although if you want a complex
> : outline you use one of the layers for that.
>
> How do you get 8? Do you have to redefine the layer buttons on
> the left? If so, how do you do that?

In the default pcb-gtk settings, you've got component, solder, gnd,
power, signal1, signal2, unused, unused. Eight. You can rename them
or group them, but as far as the internal are concerned, they're just
eight copper layers.

The Xaw version of pcb used to default to grouping some of the layers
together to form logical layers, reducing the number of gerber plots,
but you could always break the groupings to get back to eight
individual layers. It's always been that way.

> Note to the OP: A new, GTK-based version of PCB is slated to be
> released any day now,

Too late ;-)

Although I don't know if there's a snapshot of it yet, but it is what
you get if you check it out of CVS. The Xaw version has been
relegated to a branch.

> 2. no easy backannotation between PCB and gschem.

Yeah, we talked about that a bit. I suspect the hard parts are
agreeing on a file format and redrawing the schematics if needed.
Spitting out the difference between the netlist and the current
connectivity shouldn't be *that* hard for pcb to do.
.