by Bill1900 » Mon Jan 27, 2014 12:41 pm
I'm using PCB123 version 5.0.3.1. You have hit on my dilema, which is that all parts are reloaded from the library whenever I import a netlist. The parts are reloaded correctly from the library, no problem there. What I was hoping, though, was that I could get PCB123 to leave the parts that didn't change alone.
To provide a little more background, I use a common footprint for parts that are the same except for, say, the color of a connector body. Many times, when I use different colors of connectors, I put a text field on the footprint called "color," then when I place the part I change "color" to "black" or "red" or whatever color a particular connector is really going to be. I like to put the connector color on the silkscreen to aid the PCB assemblers. Anyway, if I have placed all my connectors and assigned them their proper colors, but then make a change to some other part of the circuit like changing an 0805 resistor for a 1206 part, when I import the new netlist the text on all my connectors gets set back to "color." This is the behavior I would like to avoid, but short of having a separate footprint for each color of connector, it doesn't sound like I can. That's OK, I'll just learn not to set my custom text until the very end of the layout. I thought I'd ask, though, in case I was missing something.