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Re: Multi-Part Components

 

The database I'm working on uses Firebird as the back end, which is FOS. For the front end I'm using MS Access, but only because Libre/OpenOffice has a known show-stopper of a bug. The front-end database has a few macros, queries and reports that allow it to produce a formatted parts list. It also ensures that the parts list is frozen in a project database, so changes to the the data in the back-end don't get *silently* transferred to the parts list.

Creating the database has certainly proved to be a lot of work, so I have no plans to replace the front end with an application. I could probably do it fairly quickly with MFC/DAO, but that would be Win only. It really needs to be done by someone with serious cross-platform programming experience. I have provided some code to show how to talk to the back-end database using ODBC.

Whilst the parts list generator would be independent of the existing kicad software, my thinking is that EESchema could be linked with the database engine via ODBC, eliminating the need for BOM export and providing a means of selecting components from the database into EESchema, but again I leave that to someone else.

Regards,

Robert.

On 02/07/2012 19:14, Jeff Kaskey wrote:
FWIW, that's the way I do it. I am using Parts&Vendors (neither open
source nor free, and win-only, but reasonably inexpensive) and I dump
my KiCad BOM into it and output my purchase lists, kits, etc. Let
each tool do what it does best, do not expect KiCad to become an MRP
system.

Would love to see an open-source P&V-type database tool, but it is no
small amount of work. Besides the database design itself, the UI is
important in making the tool usable at all. You deal with a lot of
parts in a BOM, you need a UI that lets you do things quickly.

-j


________________________________ From:
Robert<birmingham_spider@...> To: kicad-users@...
Sent: Monday, July 2, 2012 10:04 AM Subject: Re: [kicad-users]
Multi-Part Components



IIRC there was a posting many months ago regarding a shareware
stock / parts system that provided quite a lot of functions and was
easy to use.

Maybe someone can remember the name.
Funny you should mention that. I've been working on my own
open-source database for kicad (files in the kicad user group, update
following soon), and that's what got me thinking about this. I
think you have the answer though. I just export the receptacle in
the BOM and the database adds the correct crimp terminal strip to the
parts list.

Thanks,

Robert.
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