We generally used IPC landpattern naming so far. That means, that a polarized radial capacitor with 1.5 mm lead spacing, a lead diameter of 0.45 mm, a diameter of 4.0 mm and a height of 11.0 mm is called CAPPRD150W45D400H1100.
The landpattern naming scheme works well since it’s consistent across different package types. They also have a system for naming manufacturer-specific landpatterns. For example, the Sensirion SHTC3 would be called SENSIRION_SHTC3.
In a recent GitHub thread the question arose whether this makes sense in the context of LibrePCB:
But actually the IPC7351 naming convention for manufacturer-specific packages doesn’t make much sense IMHO. I mean, why should we use uppercase letters and underscores instead of spaces if our EDA tool has no issues with spaces or other special characters? (@ubruhin)
While I think that having consistent naming even across different EDA tools, spaces might look a bit more readable. With the following two changes:
Replace underscores with spaces
Don’t require capital case manufacturer names
…the following packages:
…would look like this:
Is this better or not? I’m actually not sure, it does look a bit inconsistent to me.
If there are no other opinions, I guess for now I’m fine with using IPC7351 naming even for manufacturer specific packages. But of course only for packages, so e.g. the package would be named “SENSIRION_SHTC3” and the corresponding device “Sensirion SHTC3”.
Haha I just realized that IPC7351 even provides a huge list of manufacturer names and their corresponding package name prefix, that’s funny
Looks better style B.
But, IPC7351 advise naming convention with manufacturer prefix too. Quick view is here.
So, style A is more logical/compatible.
p.s. I’m don’t use exactlu all IPC7351 naming convention. Name of the manufacturer of begining of the name, is no good to find it in alphabetical sort. Due this, I moved manufacturer name at the end of string. And add clearly pkg name.
This is my libs…
p.s.2. would be better and more clear, if can be add (in listbox) also short description close to name. That would be something!
Like this:
And for symbols / devices / components: Use the manufacturer prefix if the part is manufacturer-specific (e.g. Sensirion SHTC3) and leave it away if it’s somewhat generic (e.g. Resistor 2012 (0805)).
Alternatively, we could add a separate metadata field for the manufacturer. The GUI could then show it as a prefix or leave it away, depending on the situation. What do you think, @ubruhin?
Yeah I think that would be nice. In the “add component” dialog you probably want to see the manufacturer of components/devices, but in schematics not (to keep the {{VALUE}} label short). But until there is a manufacturer field, we have add the manufacturer to the name instead…
