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Revision Control - Date Time Stamp

Printed From: PCB Libraries Forum
Category: PCB Footprint Expert
Forum Name: Questions & Answers
Forum Description: issues and technical support
URL: https://www.PCBLibraries.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=843
Printed Date: 06 Oct 2024 at 10:31am


Topic: Revision Control - Date Time Stamp
Posted By: Keith
Subject: Revision Control - Date Time Stamp
Date Posted: 05 Feb 2013 at 3:45pm
Hi,

  Add a column with DATE and TIME stamp
  YYYY-MM-DD  23h59m59s
  of the last time that the footprint was modified / saved (import)

---
  Even better, add a REV column, increamenting automatically after each save (import).

---
  Even better, add a small change description column (~50 characters), that documents what was changed since last revision.

----
  Add a column that has a FLAG for the use of manufacturer's recommended footprint over-ride.
Y = MFG override
N = Using IPC M,N,L etc.
U = using User defined rules over-ride.

  With the above you can quickly sort and see which footprints have been updated to manufacturer data, then check when was the last time you reviewed it from their web site... and document what was changed last.

  ** Add the same for the User Preferences and Default Preferences .DAT files

   Add a small dialog box that records a 100 character comment along with DATE/TIME stamp of the .DAT, and saves it into a comment header inside the .DAT file.
PVCS or Subversion smart tages, $rev$ can be included in the header of the .DAT file for automatic revision control of all settings and environment.

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2008843/subversion-add-revision-data-to-code-file-on-commit


Replies:
Posted By: jameshead
Date Posted: 06 Feb 2013 at 4:13am
I wouldn't need a date/time stamp, rev, nor change description column since I maintain all my fpx and Pulsonix libraries, together with our CAD data on a PDM system that already does this (Solidworks Enterprise PDM since our MCAD boys use Solidworks).

I would not want to see extra fields added for sections of users to use but where other sections wouldn't need them.  There's already the facility for individuals to add custom fields if needed and  I think this should be were's left at - for individuals to decide whether they want extra fields and to add them themselves.

I think it's pointless adding a column for the flagging of manufacturer's recommended/least/nominal/most footprint override when it's the user that determines what footprint they are going to be exporting.

Sorry if this is a bit negative but I wouldn't want to see extra columns appearing for me to spend time scrolling through that I wouldn't need to use.

Posted By: Tom H
Date Posted: 06 Feb 2013 at 8:17am
It's difficult to create a simple program and keep the GUI clean and user friendly but add hundreds of features like most enterprise CAD vendors do and it takes a year learning curve to complete one PCB layout.
 
The feature "Add Columns" is in the program to allow the users to add additional fields that make their job easier down the road. Our situation is that we're getting teady to start the "Parts on Demand" (POD) project that by the year 2015 there could be over 20 million FPX files available to Footprint Expert users on a global scale.
 
We need to be very careful what we add to the FPX file and whatever we add it has community support. When we add the Interactive Editor which allows users to manually draw in the mfr. recommended footprint data for non-standard surface mount packages (instead of using component dimensions and IPC rules), the footprint data will be stored in a FPXC (Custom) file and there could be over 1 million of these, but they will have indentical attribute columns.
 

Posted By: Keith
Date Posted: 26 Feb 2013 at 10:33pm
ok there is no comment prefix character so this will not work

recommend the ; as comment prefix located at character 1 of a new line

the example would be

; $Revision$

which would be tagged upon check-in to PDM system

; $Revision 1.00$

Posted By: Joris
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2013 at 9:00am
I would suggest to simply put the fpx files in a SVN/GIT repository.
Since they are plain text it's pretty easy to keep track of changes. Just make sure you don't change the order.

Maybe that's something for the pcblibraries guys, I think it would be useful to not alter the order of footprints in the fpx file, even if a user sorts by a different column.

Posted By: DaveCowl
Date Posted: 08 Apr 2013 at 3:30pm
I use SVN for my libraries, mostly so I can be synchronized across the computers that I use the software on...


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