fp2preview(1)

💖 fp2preview — the girl who makes your footprints ✨pretty✨

ok so real talk, this is a page from the pcb-rnd manual, and it's all about a lil tool called fp2preview. she's small, she's fierce, she's the one who takes your library footprint and goes "okay bestie let me make you a preview image 💅".

🌸 NAME 🌸

fp2preview — generate a preview for a library footprint. that's it, that's the whole job. iconic behavior honestly.

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

fp2preview [options] [inputfile]

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

okay so here's the tea ☕ — fp2preview invokes pcb-rnd to generate a preview image of a library footprint. like, it doesn't do the drawing itself, it's the main character who calls in the legend to do the art. team effort fr fr.

and why would you even want this? bestie, its main use is being an automated, light-weight footprint preview generator using a static linked pcb-rnd — think web servers, where you've got a million footprints and zero patience. set it up once, let it cook, and previews just appear. no cap, that's the vibe. 🔥

💅 OPTIONS 💅

• --photo — draws the footprint in "photo realistic mode" ✨. yes, in quotes in the original, yes it's a whole aesthetic. we love a glow-up.
• -p — same thing as --photo, just shorter. lowkey twins.
• --grid unit — sets the grid unit, e.g. to mm or mil. pick your unit, pick your grid, live your truth.
• -g unit — same as --grid. just the lowercase lil version 🎀.
• --mm — uses an mm grid instead of a mil grid. it's a shorthand for -g mm, so if you're a metric girlie this is your shortcut 🫶.
• --annotation types — turns on annotation types. and types is a string, bestie, so it can hold a whole lil combo. here's what each one does:
  • pins — for pin/pad numbers
  • dimname and dimvalue — for dimension names and values
  • background — for drawing a background under the annotation text (so your text doesn't get swallowed by the art, we stan legibility 🌸)

🫶 friendly reminder bestie: [inputfile] is optional in the synopsis, and everything in [options] is your lil toolkit — mix and match as you please.

and that's the whole page, no crumbs left 💖 this was fp2preview(1) from the pcb-rnd manual, dated 2019-10-01. go make something gorgeous, mwah 💅✨