From: Ben Jackson <ben@ben.com>
To: gEDA user mailing list <geda-user@moria.seul.org>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 10:56:53 -0700
Subject: Re: gEDA-user: Newbiw...with a question *shocker*

On Thu, Jun 05, 2008 at 09:47:57AM -0400, Lombardi, Robert wrote:
> 
> The situation is thus:  I have 200 SMT LED's that i have to place in a
> grid pattern.
> 
> Rather than placing these things one by one i was wondering if there
> might be a way to automate the process using the Command Entry line?

If you are comfortable editing the .pcb (which is a text file) that's
what I'd do.

To solve similar problems (but perhaps not of your magnitude) I wrote
distalign, which can automate a lot of what you need to do.

	http://www.gedasymbols.org/user/ben_jackson/

You can bind these to keys or menus, but here's *one* way to do what you
want:

	(install the plugin, of course)

	(set the grid to something appropriate, as everything will land on
	the grid unless you explicitly request otherwise)

	Move the upper right and upper left LEDs to their final locations.

	Move the remainder of the top row of LEDs until they're somewhere
	in between your hand-placed LEDs (exact coordinates don't matter,
	you just need your hand-placed LEDs to be the leftmost and rightmost
	of the top row).

	Select all of the LEDs for the top row (including the ones you
	placed) (there may be a pattern select available for this??)
	:Align(Y) :Distribute(X)
	That's short for :Align(Y,Marks,First) which means "align the
	Y coordinates of the marks of the objects to the mark of the
	first (leftmost) object" and :Distribute(X,Marks,First,Last)

	Now place the lower left LED and ensure the others are somewhere
	to the right of it, select ALL of the lower row LED and do
	:Align(Y).

	Select the upper right LED and the lower right LED and do
	:Align(X)  (this will place the lower LED in its final location).

	Ensure all the unplaced LEDs are roughly in the middle again and
	select the entire bottom row.
	:Align(Y) :Distribute(X)

	at this point I think you get the idea...

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
<ben@ben.com>
http://www.ben.com/