Gerber for selected area of board

Once again, my favorite problem...wouldn't it be nice to mark those

parts as "off-board"?

Of course, some will now chime in that they shouldn't be in your

schematic in the first place, or that you should make new packageless

parts from the symbols and use those...because that is the most

convenient way to go Or perhaps you will become so confused that your

display is off-board that you will misinterpret the lack of warnings or

the loss of forward/backward annotation, and gosh, it's just not worth

it! Let's just keep struggling on the old way.

Gary Gofstein wrote:

Once again, my favorite problem...wouldn't it be nice to mark those

parts as "off-board"?

 

Of course, some will now chime in that they shouldn't be in your

schematic in the first place, or that you should make new packageless

parts from the symbols and use those...because that is the most

convenient way to go Or perhaps you will become so confused that your

display is off-board that you will misinterpret the lack of warnings or

the loss of forward/backward annotation, and gosh, it's just not worth

it! Let's just keep struggling on the old way.

Mmm, packageless parts eh? 

The reason they are on the schematic in the first place is that I'm also

developing the software and being able to have a single sheet of paper

showing what all the data lines connect to is very convenient.  I could and

likely will eventually, write a proper specification document with tables

and diagrams and explanations of what does what then bind that into a

booklet.  I guess I'll have to copy and paste the off board components to a

new set of schematics just leaving the relevant PCB related bits with lots

of port symbols.  Then take screen shots of each set of schematics and glue

them back together again in Gimp.   Or Sellotape. (Other tapes are

available). I guess I was hoping for some command line or config. file magic

to restrict the area that was 'seen' by the gerber generation tool.

Cheers Gary .

Yeah, it is frequently suggested that for parts not actually on the

board, just in the schematic for documentation, that you draw only the

symbols and place these in the schematic, then use sham wires to show

the connections, I would guess in a special non net layer.

I prefer normal parts that can be marked "off-board" or a "null package"

( that is blank and matches all pin configurations ) that allows one to

place the part in the schematic normally but leaves it off the board.

The connections to it are also ignored by the board editor.

Somewhere, of course, there has to be a physical interface like a

connector or solder hole, but the part behaves in the schematic and

simply documents the circuit for the reasons you have outlined.

This suggestion is surprisingly controversial.