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Date:	Wed, 3 May 2023 05:37:29 +0200 (CEST)
To:	geda-user AT delorie DOT com
X-Debug:	to=geda-user AT delorie DOT com from="grnd AT igor2 DOT repo DOT hu"
From:	"grnd AT igor2 DOT repo DOT hu [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
Subject:	[geda-user] new schematics editor: sch-rnd
Message-ID:	<alpine.DEB.2.20.2305030528180.25839@igor2priv>
User-Agent:	Alpine 2.20 (DEB 67 2015-01-07)
MIME-Version:	1.0
Reply-To:	geda-user AT delorie DOT com

Hi all,

the new schematics editor, with 1.0.0 just released, is called sch-rnd. 
It's been tested by a few users on real life designs for the past months. 
We have had a long beta-testing period since last autumn.

sch-rnd is _not_ a fork of geda or lepton-eda. This means it has a 
different design from bottom up, accompanied by a different data model 
and different UI (that's more similar to pcb-rnd). We have a series of 
tutorial videos that make it easy to learn using sch-rnd (accessible from 
the project page top menu).

If you are a gschem/lepton user, what could make sch-rnd interesting:

- sch-rnd doesn't depend on guile, python, autotools, glib; smaller 
footprint, easier to compile, less likely to break with major version 
bumps of any of the above deps (e.g. when you upgrade your system)

- sch-rnd + pcb-rnd + camv-rnd achieves something gschem/lepton + pcb + 
gerbv never managed: although each component is a separate project, the 
UIs look and work similar. Same UI logic, same mouse bindings, largely the 
same (multi-stroke) keyboard bindings, very similar menus, same config 
file format/conventions.

- sch-rnd has support for gtk2 and gtk4 (and for no-gui batch/cli, and to 
some degree for lesstif)

- you can import (load) gschem/lepton schematics and symbols (although due 
to the very different data model some attributes will need manual tuning)

- because of an innovation in the design, mechanisms like slotting don't 
need to be implemented in the GUI, still the GUI displays the result

- the same way net names are not calculated by the GUI code, but fed back 
to and understood and displayed by the GUI

- so unlike gschem/lepton, sch-rnd GUI is fully aware of every aspect of 
your design that the "netlist backend" is aware of, with even less 
coupling, more flexibility/toolkit-approach

- sch-rnd has a solution (devmap/portmap) to the "transistor problem" so 
you can use light symnbols _and_ light footprints and a mapping between 
them

- all the above mechanisms, slotting, devmap, portmap, etc. are replacable 
plugins; a standard set of these are included so if you are happy with 
them you don't need to invent your own custom scripts, but any time you 
dislike how any of these work, you can easily replace the given mechanism 
by replacing the corresponding plugin; this can be done globally or even 
on a per project basis!

- multiple views: you want to use different mechanisms (plugins) for 
different workflows; for example with a pcb workflow the relevant "pin 
number" info is physical pin number but with a spice workflow it's 
something like the "seqno" in gschem; sch-rnd offers views so you can 
switch, while editing, whether you want to see what your drawing means for 
pcb or for spice, GUI following your choice in what/how is displayed. And 
this is not hardwired, all views are runtime-configured!



Major features sch-rnd 1.0.0 already supports:

- single sheet and flat multisheet designs

- forward and back annotation with pcb-rnd

- for the simpler cases of back annotation sch-rnd can even execute 
modifications on the sheet so you don't need to do them manually; but even 
if you do them manually, sch-rnd can verify if they are done as requested

- the "transistor problem" solved by replacable plugins offering a portmap 
and a devmap mechanism

- sch-rnd can load sheets and symbols of alien formats; at the moment 
gschem and tinycad (mostly), altium/protel is in the queue

- support for parametric symbols: we don't need to have 75 connector* and 
header* symbols in our lib just to find the one we are looking for is 
missing; we have a single connector() symbol that can generate any 
connector*/header* looking at the parameters you pass (works from both 
sch-rnd GUI and directly from a shell)


Things that sch-rnd doesn't support yet but will in the foreseeable future 
(in ~12..18 months):

- hierarchic multisheet

- real buses (of course this is optional, one can go with gschem-like 
graphical buses)

- simulation backends (ngspice and maybe gnucap); with an option to 
back-annotate data from the simulation to the sheet

- non-graphical sheets (so you don't have to graphically draw things that 
are easier to specify in a table or textual data)

- an optional mechanism for managing alternate pin functions of CPUs/MCUs

- an optional mechanism for managing build options, DNPs, hiding/showing 
things depending on whether you are viewing the sheet for one workflow or 
another



If you have questions, feel free to ask here or to subscribe to the 
pcb-rnd mailing list (that serves sch-rnd users too, for now).


Project page: http://www.repo.hu/projects/sch-rnd/

More detailed comparison of sch-rnd and gschem and lepton: 
http://repo.hu/cgi-bin/pool.cgi?project=sch-rnd-aux&cmd=show&node=vs_geda

Best regards,

Igor2

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