Unable to remove Rat Lines

[Jason]

In PCB I am unable to remove ratlines from the netlist by deleting them or pressing "Erase Rats Nest". This bug makes modifying the rats nest/netlist in PCB very hard.

[Felix Ruoff (felixruoff)]

Hello Jason,
at my system, it is no problem to hide rat lines by pushing the delete or backspace key or to use the menu-item Connects->Erase rat lines (this item disables all rat lines). Perhaps, it is a bit iritating, that the menu-item is titled with 'erase'. It just hides these lines temporarily. The same on using the delete or backspace-key.
As far as I know, it is impossible to remove nets in the netlist-window.
Does this answer helps you or can you give a more detailed description, what you did and what you expected pcb to do?

[DJ Delorie (djdelorie)]

> Perhaps, it is a bit iritating, that the menu-item is titled with
> 'erase'.

If you are using PCB without schematics, adding and removing rat lines
is *how* you define "the netlist", since there isn't a schematic-based
netlist to compare to. "erase all rats" is much more significant then :-)

[Felix Ruoff (felixruoff)]

I have never used pcb without a schematic. So I didn't know about this, thanks!

[Jason (whitewaterssoftwareinfo)]

Backspace and delete don't work with the rat lines, what version are
you running. I suspect its time for me to compile the latest version
...

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 8:28 AM, Felix Ruoff <email address hidden> wrote:
> Hello Jason,
> at my system, it is no problem to hide rat lines by pushing the delete or backspace key or to use the menu-item Connects->Erase rat lines (this item disables all rat lines). Perhaps, it is a bit iritating, that the menu-item is titled with 'erase'. It just hides these lines temporarily. The same on using the delete or backspace-key.
> As far as I know, it is impossible to remove nets in the netlist-window.
> Does this answer helps you or can you give a more detailed description, what you did and what you expected pcb to do?
>
> --
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/788901
>
> Title:
>  Unable to remove Rat Lines
>
> Status in PCB: Printed Circuit Board CAD package:
>  New
>
> Bug description:
>  In PCB I am unable to remove ratlines from the netlist by deleting
>  them or pressing "Erase Rats Nest". This bug makes modifying the rats
>  nest/netlist in PCB very hard.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/pcb/+bug/788901/+subscribe
>

--
Jason White - Python & C++ Programmer and Electronics Hobbyist

[Jason (whitewaterssoftwareinfo)]

how can I get anonymous git accesse to PCBs sources ? I see it in
gitweb however I don't see any address to pull from ...

On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 3:53 PM, Jason White
<email address hidden> wrote:
> Backspace and delete don't work with the rat lines, what version are
> you running. I suspect its time for me to compile the latest version
> ...
>
> On Fri, May 27, 2011 at 8:28 AM, Felix Ruoff <email address hidden> wrote:
>> Hello Jason,
>> at my system, it is no problem to hide rat lines by pushing the delete or backspace key or to use the menu-item Connects->Erase rat lines (this item disables all rat lines). Perhaps, it is a bit iritating, that the menu-item is titled with 'erase'. It just hides these lines temporarily. The same on using the delete or backspace-key.
>> As far as I know, it is impossible to remove nets in the netlist-window.
>> Does this answer helps you or can you give a more detailed description, what you did and what you expected pcb to do?
>>
>> --
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/788901
>>
>> Title:
>>  Unable to remove Rat Lines
>>
>> Status in PCB: Printed Circuit Board CAD package:
>>  New
>>
>> Bug description:
>>  In PCB I am unable to remove ratlines from the netlist by deleting
>>  them or pressing "Erase Rats Nest". This bug makes modifying the rats
>>  nest/netlist in PCB very hard.
>>
>> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/pcb/+bug/788901/+subscribe
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Jason White - Python & C++ Programmer and Electronics Hobbyist
>

--
Jason White - Python & C++ Programmer and Electronics Hobbyist

[Felix Ruoff (felixruoff)]

See: http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:scm#accessing_the_repository_anonymously
or in short, use: git clone git://git.gpleda.org/pcb.git
I am running pcb in version 20100929 with GTK and lesstif-gui (from ubuntu repository of ubuntu 10.04) and the actual git-head with gtk-gui.

[Jason (whitewaterssoftwareinfo)]

Sorry, please disregard last 2 posts.

> have never used pcb without a schematic. So I didn't know about this, thanks!
so this also occurs on your box Felix ? or is that in response to DJ.

if it isn't, when will this problem be looked at by one of the developers ?

[Felix Ruoff (felixruoff)]

> > have never used pcb without a schematic. So I didn't know about this, thanks!
> so this also occurs on your box Felix ? or is that in response to DJ.
This message was a response to DJ.

[Jason (whitewaterssoftwareinfo)]

Well, I give up. I'm just going try to use Gschem since the latest PCB wont build (some unmet gtk-dependences, etc) and it seems that I'm the only one to experience this problem (even though it effects every machine I've run PCB on ...)

[Matt-sqsol (matt-sqsol)]

Yes, this is a very very annoying thing.

In PCB you can create rat lines, but you cannot destroy rat lines.

Erase / delete, whatever, just removes them from the display, not the netlist itself.

I often knock up a small circuit directly in PCB, and I curse and swear when I put a rat line in wrong, as it basically means starting from scratch again.

There is no way - I repeat *NO WAY* to *DESTROY* a rat line, and it really is very very very annoying.

[Andrew Poelstra (asp11)]

As a workaround, can you select the rat, grep the .pcb file for the "selected" flag, and delete the rat with a text editor?

Not the best solution, but it sure beats starting from scratch...

[Traumflug (mah-jump-ing)]

> As a workaround, can you select the rat, grep the .pcb file for
> the "selected" flag, and delete the rat with a text editor?

Doesn't really work, on the next "optimize rats nest" this rat appears again.

It looks like pcb manages to create a netlist from manually drawn rat lines. Unexpected, very nice feature.

It also looks like rats can be deleted just normally, there are no "hidden" rats. Deleting a rat and saving makes the rat disappear from the file.

The problematic part is apparently that drawing a rat manually adds a corresponding netlist entry, but deleting this very same rat line doesn't do the opposite, remove the connection from the netlist.

Sample file with such "undeletable" rat lines attached. Remove the netlist from the file with a text editor and all rats can be deleted "permanently".