FAQ

FAQ

why a new footprint editor?

I was getting a bit tired spending tons of mouse-clicks making an electronics footprint in a CAD program. Madparts is a tool which is more compatible with my way of working, and it'll save me time.

why are footprints code?

When you make a new footprint you start from the specification from the vendor. Then you do calculations to adjust them to your needs, tool limits, ... If your footprint is code you can put the calculations right there in the footprint, documenting your approach for yourself and others. If there turns out to be a problem you can look back and see what went wrong, and make (and document!) the needed changes.

does that mean I have to write code?

Not necessarily. Most of the time you can just clone an existing footprint and adjust the numbers. There are plenty of examples available to start from.

why coffeescript?

Coffeescript is compact and I think it is still quite easy to understand by most people with just a tiny bit of coding experience.

how about working together with other people on footprints, or sharing?

As a footprint library is just a directory, and each footprint is just a file, you can very easily share that directory via a version management system like git. (Or use something like dropbox, if you don't like having a version management system)

is there a central github repo where we can all share footprints?

This is an excellent idea and I hope someone sets this up and maintains it. Let me know if you do.

why is each footprint a separate file?

This makes sense if you want to start collaborating with other people via a version management system. You don't want to have to merge files each time someone made a change to one footprint.

why are footprints called something like 9364e38b40644665a3c8c07a5f2f3190.coffee?

Each footprint has an unique file name this way. This helps avoiding name clashes if you're working together with other people. In the editor itself the footprints are shown with their name, so you don't have to worry about the file names in practice, except perhaps when doing merges in your version management system.

how can I print a footprint?

You can't yet. It is a feature that is planned but not yet there. For now you can export to eagle and print from there.

how can you make improvements to the program without breaking the existing footprints?

There is a #format meta-tag in each footprint. Madparts uses this to use the right version of the utilities code for that particular version of footprint. The current format is 1.0.

is import/export from/to eagle cad supported?

Yes.

will you support import/export from/to kicad?

This is planned in a future release. See this issue.

Will there be a symbol editor as well?

Maybe, one day :)

where do I report bugs or feature requests?

Use the issue tracker in github.

what unit is used?

Milimeters are used everywhere. Imperial units are not supported.