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Canvas Selection in FP Editing

Asked by jbdw

1). What is the main difference among canvas selection ( default, cairo, opengl ) ?

2). What is the goal with canvas selection ? Is it about quality or compatibility ?

3). Which canvas is recommended to be used in fp editing ?

4). When do I have to switch to a certain canvas ?

5). Why at opengl and cairo the linewidth setting is disabled ?

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Wayne Stambaugh
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Best Wayne Stambaugh (stambaughw) said : 		#1

1) The default canvas is the one that has always been available in Pcbnew. All of the editing tools except push/shove and tuned length pair routing are implemented in the default canvas. The opengl and cairo canvases are the future of pcbnew. Not all of the edit tools are supported in the opengl and cairo canvases yet. Most of them are but there are still a few missing tools. The cairo canvas is primarily provided for users that do not have graphics cards that support opengl 2.2 (I think) or greater. Use the opengl canvas over the cairo canvas if possible for performance reasons.

2) It's all about new features and the future of pcbnew and at some point eeschema.

3) The default canvas is still you best bet when editing footprints. Although the opengl canvas has nice features that the default canvas doesn't and likely never will.

4) If you want to use the push/shove or tuned length pair router, you have to use the opengl or cairo canvases. Some the routing behavior is slightly different between the the opengl/cairo and default modes. You can play around to see which one you prefer.

5) This is one of the features that probably hasn't been implemented yet. At some point in the future, all of the tools will be ported to the opengl/cairo canvas and the default (legacy) canvas will either go away or be ported to the new framework and all of the canvases will behave the same way.

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jbdw (jbdwiyono) said : 		#2

Thank you for this thorough explanation.
I think yr explanation above should be added to the Pcbnew manual.
Again, thanks.