Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit
I added this post at: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97677 I have tweaked the process a little to get a better result in Inkscape. Rob, at the Inkscape forum offered some help: http://www.inkscapeforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=28t=4279 He, thinks that the 'Stroke to Path' problem looks like a mathematical rounding error. That makes sense to me. So now, the first thing I do, after loading the .ps file into Inkscape, is to scale it x10. I do all of the 'ungroup', 'path to stroke', and 'union' operations on it and then scale it back to normal size. At 10x the size, the 'Path to Stroke' does better at converting the end caps on the lines; and, after the 'Union' operation, the 45 deg. and 90 deg. corners are smoother on the traces. You might think scaling 100x would be even better. However, by scaling x100 in Inkscape and then doing 'Path to Stroke' and 'Union', a new set of problems arise. gEDA/pcb creates the solid ground plane out of multiple polygons that are butted up against each other, and meant to be treated as one solid object. At x100 scale, tiny slivers of white background show between some of them. They are 'boolean union'-ing into a single object, but with long, thin slivers taken out of the solid ground plane. The scaling seems to be slightly offsetting the nodes - looks like another rounding error to me. So, x10 gets good results. I am very happy with it. [picture] Thanks, Dave ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: Conversion to Manufacturing Data
Has anyone encountered converting pcb data to manufacturer pick and place or test data formats? (For example: IPC-D-356?) Would anyone have any hints or criteria to do so? (Again, for example: Where is the origin for a data file written in the IPC-D_356 format? Upper left? Y is positive doing down?) Any hints, directions, advice or empirical examples is greatly appreciated! Cheers! Tony ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit
Seriously its 2010, even hardcore open-source hippies should be able to afford a decent board house, there are practically no uses for single-sided-non-pth-boards and the number of any kind of important components made in through-hole form factor is decreasing by the month. Sometimes you simply can not wait for 24 hour or 1 day turns in the real world. Myself I thought Dave's work was very well timed. Management saw this: http://www.epiloglaser.com/ at CES and is thinking of spending money (a rare event) on one of them. There actually is a lot of industrial related stuff at the consumer show. What I wonder is if this Epilog machine can really do PCBs. I have my doubts about etching the copper directly, but I hope it can harden some pre-sensitize some board material, that can then be conventionally etched. I'll let you know if it happens... ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit
We have an Epilog. Low-power lasers of this type cannot cut (or even etch) copper foil, nor can they cut FR4. You can potentially use it to blast away an etch-resist layer, however; I've seen several examples of this. Here is one: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41222 -Windell On Jan 23, 2010, at 12:10 PM, Bob Paddock wrote: Sometimes you simply can not wait for 24 hour or 1 day turns in the real world. Myself I thought Dave's work was very well timed. Management saw this: http://www.epiloglaser.com/ at CES and is thinking of spending money (a rare event) on one of them. There actually is a lot of industrial related stuff at the consumer show. What I wonder is if this Epilog machine can really do PCBs. I have my doubts about etching the copper directly, but I hope it can harden some pre-sensitize some board material, that can then be conventionally etched. I'll let you know if it happens... ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit
On Sat, Jan 23, 2010 at 03:51:50PM -0800, Windell H. Oskay wrote: We have an Epilog. Low-power lasers of this type cannot cut (or even etch) copper foil, nor can they cut FR4. Even the new one Techshop Portland just got (cuts 1.25 acrylic in one pass) can't make PCBs directly. But it did cost about the same as Epilog's lowest-end machine (the zing). http://www.rabbitlaser.com/products/laserse.htm -- Ben Jackson AD7GD b...@ben.com http://www.ben.com/ ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
gEDA-user: Win32 hit list...
A list of fairly simple programming tasks (or at least, things to fix)
to make gEDA and PCB work better on Win32. I'm opening this up to the
list, as I've not got the time to work on them myself. Most / all of
these need resolving if we want a sensible gschem-PCB work-flow on
Win32.
The nsi installer I use when I build the suite sets the following
variables only:
${EnvVarUpdate} $0 PATHA HKLM $INSTDIR\bin
${EnvVarUpdate} $0 GEDADATAA HKLM $INSTDIR\share\gEDA
${EnvVarUpdate} $0 GUILE_LOAD_PATH A HKLM $INSTDIR\share\guile\
Other tools assume certain hard-coded paths, or variables being set.
Perhaps we can set some of the other variables for now.. but I'd prefer
to see the number reduced.
Ideally, we wouldn't need any - but we might need to patch Guile as well.
gnet-gsch2pcb backend:
Teach it to find the PCB library files relative to the installed
directory. Libgeda can find the gschem library, therefore with the right
use of variables - it can find the install directory - even on Win32.
(If we assume PCB and gEDA are installed at the same prefix).
In gnet-gsch2pcb.in, we have the following non-portable things:
;; Let the user override the m4 command, the directory
;; where pcb stores its m4 files and the pcb config directory.
(if (not (defined? 'gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-command)) (define gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-command
@m4@))
(if (not (defined? 'gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-dir)) (define gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-dir
@pcbm4dir@))
(if (not (defined? 'gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-confdir)) (define gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-confdir
@pcbconfdir@)
Hard coded paths are not relocatable
;; Let the user override the m4 search path
(if (not (defined? 'gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-path))
(define gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-path (list gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-dir
gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-confdir $HOME/.pcb .))
)
This path is probably wrong on
Windows ^
gsch2pcb:
pcbdata_path = g_getenv (PCBDATA); /* do not free return value */
^^ We don't actually set this when
installed on Win32
m4_pcbdir = g_strconcat( PCBDATADIR, /pcb/m4, NULL );
^^^ Hard-coded at build time
is bad for relocatability
Add a configure time option to _disable_ M4 operation - to work around
our lack of M4 support in our Win32 build.
(Or - preferably, teach minipack to build M4 so old-lib libraries can
work on Win32)
PCB:
Re-write lib/QueryLibrary.sh in C
Re-write lib/ListLibraryContents.sh in C
(OR, add similar built-in functionality for normal installs inside PCB)
(Need to do the above in order to fix old-lib support, avoid error
messages at start-up etc..)
xgsch2pcb:
Figure out the following for minipack:
Building python for Win32
Building DBus / Win-dbus / whatever the working variant is on Win32
Building py-dbus (Python dbus binding) on Win32
(OR..)
Win-dbus + re-write xgsch2pcb in C. When I last looked, I seriously
thought this might be a good idea rather than adding python and pydbus
to the list of things we need to build and ship.
Best wishes,
Peter C.
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Re: gEDA-user: Win32 hit list...
The nsi installer I use when I build the suite sets the following
variables only:
${EnvVarUpdate} $0 PATH A HKLM $INSTDIR\bin
${EnvVarUpdate} $0 GEDADATA A HKLM $INSTDIR\share\gEDA
${EnvVarUpdate} $0 GUILE_LOAD_PATH A HKLM $INSTDIR\share\guile\
Other tools assume certain hard-coded paths, or variables being set.
Perhaps we can set some of the other variables for now.. but I'd prefer
to see the number reduced.
The registry should not be used at all. Some IT departments lock it
down so only
a administrator can install things, and if it is not one of their
'things' it does not get installed.
There is no reasoning with Mordoc.
http://dilbert.com/strips/?CharIDs=15After=01/01/1996Before=01/22/2010Order=s.DateStrip+DESCPerPage=50x=23y=9CharFilter=Any
gnet-gsch2pcb backend:
Teach it to find the PCB library files relative to the installed
directory.
The best approach to these 'finding things' under Windows is to use
Environment Variables,
set in a batch file.
(define gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-path (list gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-dir
gsch2pcb:pcb-m4-confdir $HOME/.pcb .))
)
This path is probably wrong on
Windows ^
$HOME/.pcb works fine but $HOME/_pcb should be a working alternative as well.
Add a configure time option to _disable_ M4 operation - to work around
our lack of M4 support in our Win32 build.
Any reason DJGPP M4 won't work? I have all of those tools, M4, gawk,
Perl in my path.
Obviously we can't install those as part of gEDA/PCB but we can tell
people that they should,
and detect them if they are available.
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Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit
On Jan 23, 2010, at 12:10 PM, Bob Paddock wrote: snip Management saw this: http://www.epiloglaser.com/ at CES and is thinking of spending money (a rare event) on one of them. There actually is a lot of industrial related stuff at the consumer show. I've used modern Epilog machines, and own a very crotchety old one that is no longer supported. I pray to the $DIETY of lasers that the tube doesn't die What I wonder is if this Epilog machine can really do PCBs. I have my doubts about etching the copper directly, CO2 laser is the wrong wavelength to cut metal. Only a couple percent of the radiation is absorbed. Great for plastics, though, and many other materials. With respect to PCB etching, one thing I've thought about but haven't yet tried is simply using paint. Apply a thin code of flat black paint as a resist (I'm guessing enamel would work best) and let the laser ablate the paint where you want to etch. Contact me off-line if you want to chat laser cutters. -dave ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
Re: gEDA-user: Schematic Capture to dxf File - using gEDA, Inkscape, and pstoedit
On Jan 23, 2010, at 3:51 PM, Windell H. Oskay wrote: We have an Epilog. Low-power lasers of this type cannot cut (or even etch) copper foil, nor can they cut FR4. You can potentially use it to blast away an etch-resist layer, however; I've seen several examples of this. Here is one: http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=41222 cool link. hadn't seen that one. He talks about getting the speed/power settings right so that the paint totally ablates without burning, and also so that flakes don't re-deposit back onto the board. Of course, you don't want it to re-deposit onto your optics, either. I can imagine it all being very tweaky. The modern Epilogs have what they call air assist which is essentially a small jet of air directed on the focal point that disperses the flammable gasses created in the kerf. It helps tremendously with flamage when cutting certain materials. My machine doesn't have that, I'd like to jury-rig a blower of some kind. Of course, if stuff comes off in large flakes, like it sounds like the paint does, you probably want just a big exhaust flow going across the board to pull it out before it can land anywhere. -dave ___ geda-user mailing list geda-user@moria.seul.org http://www.seul.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/geda-user
