NAME

       xgsch2pcb - gEDA/gaf gschem -> PCB workflow GUI

SYNOPSIS

       xgsch2pcb [project]

DESCRIPTION

       When designing a printed circuit board (PCB) it's often desirable to create a 'schematic' which shows the
       components to be used and their connectivity in an abstract fashion.   The  connectivity  information  is
       then used to help when designing the actual circuit board.

       gsch2pcb  is  a  command-line  tool,  part  of the gEDA suite, which is used to generate and update a PCB
       layout.  It works with schematics created by gschem, part of the gEDA suite, and layouts created by  pcb,
       a PCB layout system commonly used with gEDA.

       xgsch2pcb provides an intuitive, user-friendly graphical interface to gsch2pcb.

       The main window is divided into three main areas:

       •  The  toolbar  at  the  top  offers  the usual options to quit the program and to load and save project
          files.

       •  The left hand 'Schematic' frame shows a list of schematic pages that the PCB layout will be based  on.
          The  'Edit schematic' and 'Edit attributes' buttons respectively launch gschem and gattrib to edit the
          selected schematic page.

       •  The right hand 'Layout' pane shows the name of the PCB layout file associated with  the  project.  The
          'Edit  layout'  button  launches  pcb  to  edit  a  file,  and will offer to update your PCB layout if
          necessary. The 'Update layout' button forces an update of the PCB layout even if  one  isn't  strictly
          necessary.

       The  update  process  will  carry out the following actions to modify your layout, after launching pcb if
       isn't already running:

       1.  Remove any elements from the layout that are not in the schematic.

       2.  Find any elements that are in the schematic but not in the layout, and add them to the layout (in the
           top left corner). N.b. that it's probably a good idea to leave this corner of your layout clear until
           the layout is more or less finalised, to avoid new elements  interfering  with  elements  which  have
           already been placed and routed.

       3.  Clear your rats and load a new rats nest.

       4.  Update the component pin names to match the pin names on the schematic symbol.

       Note  that  the update process won't modify your PCB file on disk, and will take into account any changes
       you have made since you last saved.

                                                 02 January 2010                                    xgsch2pcb(1)