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KiCad / kicad-footprints

Official KiCad Footprint Libraries for Kicad version 5
https://kicad.github.io/footprints
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Connector footprint library organization #1654

Closed evanshultz closed 5 years ago

evanshultz commented 5 years ago

There is a bit of a problem with connector libraries: It's sometimes hard to figure out where a particular footprint goes!

Let's take an example of a single connector that is from a vendor with their own library. Does this new footprint go in:

  1. Connector.pretty
  2. Connector_<vendor>.pretty
  3. Connector_<function>.pretty

An argument could probably be made for all three, but the latter two are where I run into the most questions. How to decide? Is there an overall priority where we go with the connector function (HDMI, USB, etc.) if a library exists? So function overrides vendor? Or has this never been discussed before?

This came to my mind when looking at https://github.com/KiCad/kicad-footprints/pull/1636. They are FFC connectors, but they're from Molex.

poeschlr commented 5 years ago

This is actually clarified in the KLC http://kicad-pcb.org/libraries/klc/F1.2/

My intention when making the original draft (that got converted to this rule by oliver) was the following:

There are two types of connectors. Ones where the mating end is standardized (USB, DSUB, FFC, ...) and ones where it is a manufacturers standard (Phoenix MSTB, JST XH, ...) The former are organized by the standard (So all USB connectors live in the USB lib.) The later are organized by manufacturer. Both types of libs can be further split up. (The Phoenix libs are examples of that.)

The Connector lib is there to collect footprints for parts that do not fit anywhere else but there are simply not enough similar parts to merit making one.

evanshultz commented 5 years ago

Alright. Thank you.

Let me add some more details just for my own providence.

A USB connector can't go into Connector but must go into Connector_USB. If there are a lot of Molex USB connectors, they may move into Connector_USB_Molex. Connector_USB would then only contain USB connectors not made by Molex. And Connector_Molex would never contain any USB connectors.

And all that means that the PR I referenced went into the correct lib. Yay!