hello everybody,
can you give me informations about MACROS usages (in Preferences Menu : Macro / sauver Macro / enregistrer macro).
With other products, macros can be used to make repetitive operations (i.e changing size of value text on various components). Is it the case here ?
Thank you
Hi,
please consider that Macros are very poor documented and they will disappear on next release
https://lists.launchpad.net/kicad-developers/msg24275.html
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As the “official” road map says,
“Study ergonomics of various commercial/proprietary PCB applications (when in doubt about any particular UI solution, check how it has been done in a certain proprietary app that is very popular among OSHW folks and do exactly opposite).”
Brilliant! NOT.
Eagle has a command language, scripting, and user programming language. Kicad has python. Whoopee! Now you have to be a programmer to automate repetitive tasks. Want docs for the api? Read the source code.
I had high hopes and enthusiasm for KIcad when CERN stepped in, but no more. By the time Kicad reaches the level of Eagle 7.5, I will be 6 ft under.
I think KiCad must mature to place in a development stage where all the changes in the application at the same time would be described in the documentation. Now we have something that I personally called “spread development”. Each major section: application, documentation, libraries life of its own, which makes stable releases not very consistent and full of questions from users how something really works.
I’m thinking of requesting a Kicad enhancement (I did a quick check so I don’t think this is a dup) and want to see if there might be some buy in. I’ve tried, at various times over the years of using Kicad, to use Macros, and don’t think I actually ever got them to work. Now they are gone… I was hoping to see some type of high level scripting (add line x1,y1 x2,y2, layer thickness…) python is now the solution, however the documentation needs volunteers. Volunteers need examples, good examples. So this is the crazy pitch, let’s say you bring up a dialog box with radio buttons, check boxes, and text entries; like plotting gerber, pdfs, and/or svg files. It would be nice if there was a check box that would generate a python script of the equivalent when you actually generate the files. Then you could make hot keys that could run that script (like a macro), or even have the ability to right click on the button bar where you could link a script and an icon. Just some crazy thought. Exploring ideas before I spend the time to write up a request. Any feedback is welcome.
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