On Monday 22 April 2013 22:25:37 Kent A. Reed did opine: > On 4/16/2013 7:23 PM, Gene Heskett wrote: > > On Tuesday 16 April 2013 19:05:57 andy pugh did opine: > >> On 16 April 2013 10:49, propcoder <marius.alks...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>> electronics (power, drivers, custom electronics with documentation > >>> and all datasheets, cabling, signals, computer,..) > >> > >> I don't do anything for anyone other than myself, but I would be lost > >> without the wiring details. (and it really needs to be down to the > >> level of pin numbers in every connector, and the wire colours between > >> them) > >> > >> It would be nice to be able to generate a nice HAL diagram, and there > >> have been various ways to do that suggested, but I am not sure any > >> have been shown to work properly. > > > > There was a thingy that I assume worked, I installed it last fall, but > > it had one fatal flaw. It tried to make the whole diagram fit on a > > single sheet of paper, when, in order to have been able to read it > > with a magnifying glass, it would have had to be done in multi-page > > poster style that would have likely used 54 to 100+ sheets of paper > > to be taped together before the text in one of the teeny little logic > > boxes would have been big enough to read. > > <...> > > > > Looking on the lathes box, I find a ~/gene/src/RockHopper directory > > that looks like one of those usual suspects, was that it? > > > > Cheers, Gene > > Sorry for coming to the party a week late. I've been very distracted > lately.
Your lady's health? My sympathies. I hope she is better now. > Me thinks you exaggerate the problem just a bit. The Rockhopper server > creates a diagram in SVG. One could save* the diagram to file from the > browser, open the saved file in Inkscape, I didn't know it was svg. Hitting ctl+ in the browser did not magnify it enough to be useful so I assume it was spitting out postscript at 72 dpi. > and either go through > machinations to print it in tiles I like that idea, and will check it out, but now it will likely be later next week as we're headed to NYS over the weekend, Thursday I'm told. > or use the Inkscape "save as" function > to create** a PDF version of the diagram. With that in hand, one could > use available on-line servers or standalone utilities to print the > diagram in tiles. Try searching on "tiled printing". Note that some of > the programs discussed in the Wikipedia article appear to have moved, > changed authorship, or disappeared since the article was last edited and > that the version of pdfposter that Synaptic Package Manager installed on > my Ubuntu 10.04LTS system didn't behave (could be my own fault). I went > to the latest version available from github.com (and found it a PITA to > install, but I persevered). > > Let's take a step back though. The Rockhopper HAL Graph function works > essentially the same way as my HAL2HTML program I posted about in the > fall of 2011. The Rockhopper developers made most of the same design > choices I did (you can see my list at > https://sites.google.com/site/manisbutareed). Visually their diagrams > and mine are slightly different (no question theirs are prettier; mine > look like they were made by a bookkeeper). Mostly they are the same, > though, because we both use Graphviz functionality to construct a graph > from HAL information and to render the resulting diagram. One obvious > difference is in the presentation of HAL signals: they chose to make > them labelled nodes (rendered as dotted boxes) and I decided not to, > making them labelled arcs instead. My choice reduces the number of nodes > to be placed but makes for more contorted signal paths.The same > information is communicated either way. We both suffer from the problem > that the size and complexity of a HAL diagram is potentially unbounded. > > Looking at my Google site now I see that I never posted the next step in > the evolution of my thinking. Trying to partition the completed graph > automagically looked difficult to a lazy hacker like me The relevant > Graphviz tools brought no joy. I decided instead to try the following: > > 1) create an overview diagram which showed all the HAL components > by name only with no internal structure, e.g. no pins, and the > interconnections between them. > 2) create detailed nearest-neighbor diagrams, each showcasing a > single HAL component and all the components to which it is > interconnected, along with all pins involved in any interconnections. > 3) embed these diagrams in HTML pages with hyperlink maps so one > could navigate relatively easily among components on different diagrams. > > I implemented this approach and tested it with some of the example HAL > configurations distributed with LinuxCNC. I thought the approach worked > pretty well. Whether displayed or printed, each diagram was logically > self-contained, more or less, and not just a tile cut out of a big > diagram that wasn't laid out with tiling in mind. I'll try to add > examples to my Google site so you can see what I mean. There obviously > will be some redundancy. In the simplest case, consider two components A > and B interconnected only with each other. My KISS approach will > generate two nearest-neighbor diagrams, one for A "is connected to" B > and one for B "is connected to" A. Someone less lazy that I would fix > that by implementing better bookkeeping. C'est la vie. > > I put the HAL2HTML work aside because I wanted to explore coding up a > Manhattan-routing algorithm to generate rectilinear interconnect paths > in place of the Bezier curves generated by Graphviz---think electronic > schematic. (Actually, Graphviz claims to support "ortho" arcs natively > but that feature didn't work properly in the versions*** I used.) Then > family events pushed everything aside. I'm slowly digging through my > collection of round2its and this subject has come back into view. Who > knows, maybe I'll be able to make some progress this spring. > > To get back to Rockhopper, the other server functions look very useful > for documenting a build too. I like their display of ini-file contents > so much I immediately abandoned my own crude attempt. > > Regards, > Kent > > *If you're feeling frisky, Chuckle, at my age & glucose reading, even Dee hasn't called me frisky in years. Darn it... > you could modify the Rockhopper Python script > so that in addition to creating the SVG file Graphviz would also create > and save a PDF file for further use. That would be useful only if the PS engine can be convinced to output a 2400 dpi image before its compressed from the 2+ gigabytes of raw data that would generate. 72 dpi won't cut it. > **There's also the Apache Batik SVG Toolkit for the adventuresome. I > fooled with it during my waning days of employment and don't wish to > return to it. Maybe it's gotten better but I've gotten dumber, so it > remains a standoff. That is a discussion I have with myself, more and more often. And I haven't won many of them either. > ***Like so many Ubuntu packages, the version of Graphviz installed by > the Synaptic Package Manager is well behind the current release, > although less so in the case of Ubuntu 12.04LTS. Yeah, whats on 10-04.4 LTS is a good 4 or 5 years old now. :( Cheers, Gene -- "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) My web page: <http://coyoteden.dyndns-free.com:85/gene> is up! My views <http://www.armchairpatriot.com/What%20Has%20America%20Become.shtml> Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun. 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