- Pull-request: #106
- Opened: 2020-07-15
- Status: Merged (2020-07-17)
- Branch: fix_variants
The config field name is configurable (fit_field option).
One of its uses is to specify a list of variamts using comma (,) as separator.
Other uses for this field are to mark a component as "Do Not Fit" (do not solder) and "Do Not Change".
The variants mechanism was described by author in the Kicad Forum:
Fitted or not fitted is a good start, but what you really want is assembly variants / configurations. Imagine some hypothetical board which you have to build for three customers, as well as have an in-house build with extra parts for debugging or test points or whatever.
Some part (let's call it U31) is fitted for Customers1, but not 2 or 3.
R17 is missing for Customer2 but loaded for all others. C99 is ONLY fitted for debug
See how it now becomes more complicated than just DNF?
So, you have the concept of a board configuration - there can be multiple configurations for a given board. In the schematic editor you can edit the configurations, add descriptions, etc. Then, each item in the schematic gets a "configuration" field, where you can specify which configurations correspond to each symbol.
e.g.
U31.configuration = -customer3 R17.configuration = -customer2 -customer3 C99.configuration = +debug
Where:
-xxx removes the part from configuration xxx +yyy specifies that the part is only fitted for configuration yyy You can chain multiple explicit configurations e.g. +xxx -yyy -zzz Unless defined otherwise given the points above, a part is assumed to be fitted.
So the idea is that components marked with +VARIANT are included only if you ask for VARIANT. The initial implementation makes +VARIANT equivalent to nothing.
This problem was reported and a fix propposed in PR #68.
This patch takes a different approach and removes various redundant operations.