File Formats in gEDA

Basic Info

All coords are in mils (1/1000 or an inch).
Origin is in lower left hand corner.
Files should end in either .sch or .sym

Coordinate system

Object types

The object type letter must start in the first column. Schematic/Symbol files are case sensitive.

Version number

Example:
v 19990327

type versionnumber

type = v
versionnumber = version of gEDA which created this file

Components

Example:
C 18600 19900 1 0 0 7400-1.sym

type x y selectable angle mirror basename

type = C
x y = location of lower left corner point
selectable = 1 if selectable or 0 if not
angle = rotation, 0, 90, 180, 270 (only)
mirror = 0 if not mirrored or 1 if mirrored
basename = component name, does not include any path!

Text

Example:
T 16900 35800 3 10 1 0 0
I'm a string!

type x y color size visibility show_name_value angle
string

type = T
x y = same as above
color = see include/colors.h
size = height in points of the text
visibility = 0 if invisible or 1 if visible
show_name_value = show both name and value 0

show value only 1
show name only 2

angle = rotation, 0, 90, 180, 270 (only)
string = text string

Net
Pin
Line

Bus

Examples:
N 12700 29400 32900 29400 4
P 17800 33100 22300 33100 1
L 27300 37400 37200 35300 3

U 27300 37400 37200 35300 3

type x1 y1 x2 y2 color

type = N L P U (net line pin bus respectively)
x1 y1 = first point
x2 y2 = second point
color = see include/colors.h

Arc

Example:
A 0 500 400 -50 90 3

type x y radius start_angle sweep_angle color

type = A
x y = center of arc
radius = radius of arc
start_angle = starting angle in degrees / Standard cartesian layout
sweep_angle = degrees to sweep arc
color = see include/colors.h

Box

Example:
B 300 300 1400 2900 3

type x y width height color

type = B
x y = lower left hand corner
width height = width and height of the box
color = see include/colors.h

Circle

Example:
V 250 700 50 6

type x y radius color

type = V
x y = center of circle
radius = radius of the circle
color = see include/colors.h

Special font definition object

Example:
F A 29

type character width [optional_flag]

type = F
character = the character being defined
width = the width of the character in mils
optional_flag = is only used in space char definition

This is a special tag and should ONLY show up in font definition files. The space character is special and is defined as follows:

F _ 11 1

The last one signifies that this definition is the space character.

Attributes

Attributes are enclosed in { } and can only be text. Attributes are text items which take on the form name=value. If it doesn't have name=value it's not an attribute. Attributes are attached to the previous object. Here's an example:

P 988 500 1300 500 1
{
T 1000 550 5 8 1 1 0
pin3=3
}

The object is a pin which has an attribute pin3=3 (name=value). You can have multiple text objects (both the T ... and text string are required) in between the { }

You can also have "toplevel" attributes. These attributes are not attached to any object, but instead are just text objects that take on the form name=value. These attributes are useful when you need to convey some info about a schematic page and need the netlister to have access to this info.

Embedded objects

Embedded objects take on the following form:

C 18600 21500 1 0 0 EMBEDDED555-1.sym
[
...
... Embedded primitive objects
...
]

Where the basename is EMBEDDEDcomponent_name.sym In the example above 555-1.sym is the basename. The EMBEDDED tag and the [ ] are the distinguishing characteristics of embedded components. component_name.sym must exist in one of the specified component-libraries if you want to unembed a component.

Extra info

Currently, nets and other components should NOT be inside components.

gschem and friends do not like bad schematic/symbol files, ie file syntax checking is non-existent and gschem and friends will exit if they find an invalid file.