I think it's more the case that (understandably) many kicad users have no
experience of large and complex products and the construction and
production of such things. The PCB is just a small part of the whole.
Before the days of databases and CAD type programs, you would have a
drawing set, which would show the PCB layout, components and so on. You
would also have an assembly drawing that would show the PCB in outline
form, and specify all the mounting hardware, AND the assembly order.
It was very common to have a dozen or more assembly drawings in order to
build up a product. I can still vividly remember the smell of freshly
printed dyeline drawings - ammonia was used in the developing process
and the paper held that smell for days :-)
M6 Pan head bolt, Crinkle Washer, plain washer, PCB, plain washer,
spacer, mounting plate, start washer, nut - then a note to specify
locking compound, torque and so on as needed.
Long winded to type, but it's just a slightly exploded item on a
drawing. You got used to reading them.
Loads of ancillary drawings detailing things like cable form assembly,
front panel layout and engraving, etc. etc.
Then there is the part list, EVERY item is identified and listed.
The drawing does not list things as M4 bolt, but by part number.
That is then cross references with the parts list which can be
dozens of pages long.
Walk into the purchasing department and there would the stock cards
that detailed what every part was, where it was to be purchased
from, alternate sources and so on.
Everything is a lot easier now with databases and PC's doing a lot
of the grunt work, especially keeping track of inventory, but the
process is basically the same.
While it is nice to have extra features there is a danger as you
say that it could grow like topsy and quickly get out of hand.
All you actually need is a list of part numbers used. Now that
could be formatted as part number + quantity or it could be as
simple as the part number only repeated as many times as that
part is used. It's no big deal for a database to count up the
duplicated part numbers to get a total.
One of the paradigms of linux is that a tool should do one job well, not
a bad way to do things. So far Kicad tends to follow that method. I hope
it continues to do so.
Andy
On Wed, 4 Jul 2012 22:56:37 +0100
"JorgeF_Tech" <jorgef.tech@...> wrote:
Hi
I second Andy position.
Kicad is a PCB design tool, not a full project manager and doesn't seem to
be intended to replace the whole project team.
If we start enlarging the scope of the tool, one of this days someone will
be asking for a full library of nuts, bolts, washers, enclosures, power
cords,... and whatever else we need to put a finished product on the
shelves.
This kind of complex components, as the connectors made of separate pins and
plastic frame, are normally addressed by some kind of database tool that has
records with the composition details for a specific internal product code,
alongside with approved vendors, costs and so on.
Its like when you take your car/dishwasher/. to be serviced. They only fill
the replaced/tuned parts and man work hours get added by the system.
Just my 2 cents.
Best regards
Jorge
De: kicad-users@... [mailto:kicad-users@...] Em nome
de Andy Eskelson
Enviada: segunda-feira, 2 de Julho de 2012 17:57
Para: kicad-users@...
Assunto: Re: [kicad-users] Multi-Part Components
You give each part a unique ident, then you can export the BOM and feed
the result into an external stock control / parts database system. In
that you can associate the part with whatever source you are using. So if
you have 50 pins that come off a strip, your external system will add up
all the pins of that type, and total up the number of pin strips needed.
It really is far too much hard work to try to get the Kicad BOM to do
things like this, it's simply the wrong tool.
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.
Andy
On Mon, 02 Jul 2012 17:41:11 +0100
Robert <birmingham_spider@... <mailto:birmingham_spider%40gmx.net> >
wrote:
There was a recent discussion about putting things on the schematic so
they get exported in the BOM but don't get placed on the PCB. A
related problem is multi-part components. For example, a jack plug for
a header might consist of a receptacle and a number of crimp terminals
snapped off from a strip, the receptacle and the strip each having their
own part number and ordering information.
Has anyone come up with a slick way to generate multiple parts in the
BOM file for a single component on the schematic?
Regards,
Robert.
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