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Subject: Re: [geda-user] how to use "clearance" and mask in pcb footprint
From: Stefan Salewski <mail AT ssalewski DOT de>
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Date: Thu, 26 Jul 2012 14:16:27 +0200
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On Wed, 2012-07-25 at 14:34 -0700, Colin D Bennett wrote:

> [...]
> It's a cumbersome and annoying, but you just have to get used to
> it. The problem is that we usually want to specify footprint specs
> in different terms than pcb requires them, like we want to say "gap
> from copper to solder mask" or "gap between pad and polygon".  It
> would be so nice to have cleanly described footprints, rather than
> relying on layers of footprint generator scripts and stuff, or
> tedious manual calculations.

I guess the current footprint file format is very closely related to the
gerber format.

If you do not like it, why do you not invent a new one? You can
integrate all the missing details like keepouts, nets, 3D-Models...
You may investigate KiCad or other tools for inspiration. And of course
you can code a tool for footprint design and validation -- that can
exist separate from pcb program, so you are not restricted to C language
and GTK/Lesstif. 

All what we need then is an import function to pcb, that should be not
too difficult to implement for the features which pcb program can
already support.