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From: "Erich Heinzle (a1039181 AT gmail DOT com) [via geda-user AT delorie DOT com]" <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
Date: Mon, 23 Jan 2017 08:53:25 +1030
Message-ID: <CAHUm0tMqMEGk5iTazi7J0OFYCTMrP-ECF_kA=anB_s3S84-0Bg@mail.gmail.com>
Subject: [geda-user] Export to gEDA now supported by the fped footprint creation tool
To: geda-user <geda-user AT delorie DOT com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com

Minor additions to the fped footprint utility have been made to allow
the export of individual footprints - or entire families of footprint
- to gEDA compatible footprints.

The fped utility was developed by Werner Almesberger to allow
footprints to be parametrically defined in a footprint description
language which contains and preserves dimensional information in the
.fpd footprint description file even after the final footprint or
footprints are generated and exported.

http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/fped/

Many Kicad users prefer to use fped's more powerful and expressive
features rather than Kicad's inbuilt footprint (a.k.a. module) editing
interface.

The Qi-hardware team have assembled a well documented library of parts
defined in the fped .fpd description language.

i.e. see:

http://downloads.qi-hardware.com/people/werner/tmp/kicad-libs-modules.pdf

It should be noted that the fped footprint editor is not designed to
be kicad specific, but it does support a few features in kicad, such
as "offset centre" holes in pads, which the gEDA export code does its
best to cope with, by replacing the offset centred hole with a simple
pin.

Footprint elements are exported in centimil format.

Here are some screen shots to give you a taste of how it works:

http://imgur.com/a/Piw1k

http://imgur.com/a/lybsS

Rather than export discrete footprint (.fp) files for use in gEDA, the
fped utility exports the elements in a layout (.pcb) file. This is
done to work around the absence of a footprint library format for gEDA
pcb.

The exported (.pcb) file they can then have the elements selected and
dispersed in the gEDA pcb layout editor, allowing individual elements
to be inspected and/or saved to individual .fp files.

What would be handy is a "Save all buffer elements to individual
files" option in the layout editor.

Testing would be appreciated.

There are lots of .fpd files to play with in:

http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/kicad-libs/source/tree/master/modules

The source code is available either via git:

git clone git://projects.qi-hardware.com/fped.git

or it can be downloaded in a .zip file from

http://projects.qi-hardware.com/index.php/p/fped/source/tree/master/

Complaints/comments/feature requests are most welcome.

Have fun,

Erich