gEDA-user: up-to-date apt repository

2010-08-11 Thread David Griffith


I vaguely recall someone having a repository containing the bleeding edge 
of the gEDA suite.  Does such a beast exist?


--
David Griffith
dgri...@cs.csubak.edu

A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?


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Re: gEDA-user: help with compiling gedagaf-1.6.1, gcc4.4.2, gtk-2.18.9

2010-08-11 Thread sibu xolo
On Tuesday 10 August 2010 21:14:57 Peter TB Brett wrote:
 On Tue, 10 Aug 2010 13:15:33 +0100, sibu xolo sib...@btconnect.com wrote:
  Making all in src
  make[3]: Entering directory `$SOURCES/geda-gaf-1.6.1/libgeda/src'
  /bin/sh ../../libtool --silent --tag=CC   --mode=compile g++ -m64 -fPIC -
 
 It looks like you're compiling with g++. This doesn't seem right to me...
 
 Peter


I had not read   configure help closely and had  an erroneous line in  my 
configure with
CXX=g++ -m64 -fPIC
After removing it,  the stuff  (released and from GIT) compiles  flawlessly.

--tests: results

gedagaf-1.6.1   
46 tests passed
0 test failed


gedagaf from GIT
45 test pased
2 failed

--
Thanks very much  for the help


 


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread Kai-Martin Knaak
DJ Delorie wrote:

 
 http://www.delorie.com/electronics/hdd_clock/
 
 Note that the top layer is missing a chunk near C2.  It seems to have
 placed it rotated 180 degrees around that pin.
 
 It's OK in postscript and gui
 
 It's BAD in gerber and png

Hmm. I fail to see the problem on the png on your web site. 

---)kaimartin(---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak  tel: +49-511-762-2895
Universität Hannover, Inst. für Quantenoptik  fax: +49-511-762-2211 
Welfengarten 1, 30167 Hannover   http://www.iqo.uni-hannover.de
GPG key:http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?search=Knaak+kmkop=get



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gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread John Griessen

I attended a trade show/info-mercial to do with printed circuit layout
and manufacture yesterday to meet some people to ask for
contract work and heard about Mentor CAD tools and overall trends
we should pay attention to in planning additions to gEDA tools.

A speaker named Tom Hausherr described how he had developed a 1 part
library operating a layout service bureau, then sold the library as a business
for a while, then sold that business, and started designing software for
Mentor to auto-generate libraries, and lead creation the templates to
auto-generate from.  Mentor has made a tool that will generate variants of
a library of footprints to suit IPC or IEC or EIA standards with your 
preferences
of Most, nominal, Least, least, or user specified different from standards
amount of solder area for pads, courtyard extra manufacturing allowance,
preferences about assembly drawing layers, etc.  The tool also relates
package 3d shape to footprint per IPC or other standards rules so you can
change existing package data to create a new one with similar but different
shape quickly -- one view is a plan and elevation of a package, the other is
footprint and fill forms that change it via preferences that are relative to the
chosen land pattern standard.   They market this to freelance
layout folks as helping them with career mobility, and to big Co's as efficient.
Their next thing planned is to not even have the tool show a plan and elevation,
but import 3d DXF, (autocad interchange format),
data to filter through preferences and generate a land pattern.

Another thing I heard about is the trend to use metric units.  Tom H. has lots 
of
experience with doing boards, still does some and was helping with layout
of the Red Camera circuit board where they had customers wanting it bad
right after the design was simulated to work, but not laid out, so they tried 
autorouting
it and no go until they chose a grid based on 0.05mm spacings.  That spacing 
rule
combined with the predominant parts available today let the autorouter work best
on that board routing between 1000+ BGA pins among other circuit parts with ten 
routing layers.
PCB already handles 0.05mm spacings fairly well -- might have some rounding 
artifacts, but not ones
that will stop good autorouting that I know of.  I've not tried using the 
autorouter
or toporouter with more than 2 layers yet... Anyone?

The trend of asking for 3D DXF files from all the manufacturers is something
to ponder when anyone gets a coding urge.  From such data, ALL that is
needed to make a land pattern is extractable, including the website link
it comes from, and possibly other BOM data, and it is becoming a defacto 
standard
(which is the way all electronics standards have started).

John Griessen
--
Ecosensory   Austin TX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Digital_Cinema_Camera_Company


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Re: gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread Bert Timmerman
Hi John,

I was working on a dxf exporter for pcb.

Recently did a couple of steps converting this into a pcb plugin for
exporting dxf stuff, and maybe importing a pcb outline from mechanical CAD.

Problem with dxf is that it doesn't support 3D shapes in a usable way, this
remains bound to AutoCAD for further processing.

Furthermore I started a pcb footprint wizard in GTK (an open source
look-a-like version of Tom's stuff).

And had some thoughts about a BGA fanout utility (gfanout) and some
automation of adding pinout labels in pcb footprints or gschem symbols or
what usage I can further think of (gpinout).

Oh, and I bundled some pcb plug-ins.

All to be found at http://www:github.com/bert

Most of these projects are half baked, you (both the lists) are all invited
to bake the other half. 

This because my spare time is becoming sparse time

Kind regards,

Bert Timmerman.



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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

 Hmm. I fail to see the problem on the png on your web site. 

Well, I didn't stop working just because of that one bug.  Download
the bad-poly.pcb linked on the page.


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gEDA-user: adding new components

2010-08-11 Thread Imre Péntek
Hello!

I'm pretty new to gEDA, at first I'm not able to locate bc212 in the components 
list, regarding this I have some questions: How can I create custom components 
(e.g. bc212)? I found the components in /usr/share/gEDA/sym, but at first sight 
it isn't obvious how can I create a file appropriate for a given component. Is 
there a howto about it? And finally, if I manage to create a sym file for a 
component, where can I submit it so that the future wersions could conatin it?

fyi I use Ubuntu 10.04

Thanks for your answers in advance.
-- 
With regards: Imre Péntek
E-Mail: pentek.i...@gmail.com


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Re: gEDA-user: adding new components

2010-08-11 Thread Stefan Tauner
hello

i just started a few weeks ago... learning curve is a bit steep at
start, but it's quite logic after some learning-by-doing. creating
symbols is a very good step!
howto: http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:gschem_symbol_creation
contributing and lots of external symbols for you to use:
http://www.gedasymbols.org/

hth :)

-- 
Kind regards, Stefan Tauner


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread Ben Jackson
On Tue, Aug 10, 2010 at 09:33:30PM -0400, DJ Delorie wrote:
 
 http://www.delorie.com/electronics/hdd_clock/
 
 Note that the top layer is missing a chunk near C2.  It seems to have
 placed it rotated 180 degrees around that pin.

Ahh it would have been nice if you'd mentioned the PNGs aren't showing
that problem on the web page!

 It's OK in postscript and gui
 
 It's BAD in gerber and png

That's an odd combo.  PS, most flavors of GUI and gerber use the dicer to
draw polygons, while PNG can use erasure, which might explain something.

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
b...@ben.com
http://www.ben.com/


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Re: gEDA-user: adding new components

2010-08-11 Thread Imre Péntek
Hello again,

I read the doc at http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:gschem_symbol_creation, and I 
cannot tell whether sym files contain any component-type specific parameters 
(e.g. Hfe for a transistor).

But to ask this question more generally: is gschem (and friends) capable of 
simulating the circuit and pcb designing?
-- 
With regards: Imre Péntek
E-Mail: pentek.i...@gmail.com


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Re: gEDA-user: adding new components

2010-08-11 Thread John Doty

On Aug 11, 2010, at 1:43 PM, Imre Péntek wrote:

 Hello again,
 
 I read the doc at http://geda.seul.org/wiki/geda:gschem_symbol_creation, and 
 I 
 cannot tell whether sym files contain any component-type specific parameters 
 (e.g. Hfe for a transistor).
 
 But to ask this question more generally: is gschem (and friends) capable of 
 simulating the circuit and pcb designing?

See http://www.brorson.com/gEDA/SPICE/intro.html.

Note that schematics intended for pcb layout are generally difficult to 
simulate, and schematics intended for simulation are generally not suitable for 
pcb layout.

For simulation of a transistor, you will need to obtain a file of model 
parameters from some other source, typically the manufacturer. Most model 
parameter files are licensed under terms that prevent redistribution, so they 
cannot be distributed with gEDA.

These limitations are not specific to gEDA, but apply to other EDA packages as 
well.

John Doty  Noqsi Aerospace, Ltd.
http://www.noqsi.com/
j...@noqsi.com




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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

 Ahh it would have been nice if you'd mentioned the PNGs aren't showing
 that problem on the web page!

Well, it *was* at the time I sent the email.  Only later did I realize
that a newer version suddenly worked, and panicked to find an older
backup of the .pcb that still had the problem.


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gEDA-user: pcb: solder paste stencil layers and QFNs

2010-08-11 Thread Andrew Armenia
   I sent off some Gerber files from pcb today for fabrication and
   discovered no easy way to generate solder paste Gerbers with
   reduced-size apertures for things like the exposed die-attach pads on
   QFN packages. (There's a Freescale app note at
   [1]http://cache.freescale.com/files/sensors/doc/app_note/AN3111.pdf
   describing some of the issues which can result from too much paste.)
   I've developed a patch for pcb which adds a new shrinkpaste flag for
   pads. Setting this flag on a pad causes the pad to be changed to a
   square pad with an area of 40% of the original pad area during
   stencil-layer rendering. If anyone else would find this patch useful
   (or if I missed something really obvious), please let me know...
   -Andrew
   --
   Andrew Armenia
   Ultradian Diagnostics LLC
   Rensselaer, NY 12144
   [2]www.ultradian.com

References

   1. http://cache.freescale.com/files/sensors/doc/app_note/AN3111.pdf
   2. http://www.ultradian.com/


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: solder paste stencil layers and QFNs

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

For QFN exposed pads, do this...

Make a pad for each paste spot

Add one big pad with the nopaste flag that covers them all

That way you can control the paste separately from the copper


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Re: gEDA-user: Bourns 3386P footprint

2010-08-11 Thread kai-martin knaak
David Griffith wrote:

 I think I got it right, but would someone please double-check this
 footprint for a Bourns 3386P trimpot for me?  See
 
http://www.gedasymbols.org/user/david_griffith/footprints/POT_BOURNS_3386P.fp
 

* The position of pins looks ok. Their numbers differ from the numbers in 
the data sheet. Is this deliberate? 

* I'd make the annular ring larger to facilitate manual soldering. 80 mils 
seems like a decent size to me. If the annular ring is a handicap for the 
layout, they con be shrunken as needed.  

* The outline of your footprint is a bit larger than the real component. 

---)kaimartin(---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Öffentlicher PGP-Schlüssel:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0x6C0B9F53



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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread kai-martin knaak
DJ Delorie wrote:

 
 Hmm. I fail to see the problem on the png on your web site.
 
 Well, I didn't stop working just because of that one bug.  Download
 the bad-poly.pcb linked on the page.

I don't see any faults in the gerbers of this pcb, either. 
http://lilalaser.de/tmp/Screenshot-gerbv_hddclock.png

---)kaimartin(---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Öffentlicher PGP-Schlüssel:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0x6C0B9F53



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Re: gEDA-user: up-to-date apt repository

2010-08-11 Thread kai-martin knaak
David Griffith wrote:

 I vaguely recall someone having a repository containing the bleeding edge
 of the gEDA suite.  Does such a beast exist?

Well, bleeding edge of pcb Peter Cliftons OpenGL enables version. I don't 
think, this has been packaged anywhere.

---)kaimartin(---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Öffentlicher PGP-Schlüssel:
http://pgp.mit.edu:11371/pks/lookup?op=getsearch=0x6C0B9F53



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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

  Hmm. I fail to see the problem on the png on your web site.
  
  Well, I didn't stop working just because of that one bug.  Download
  the bad-poly.pcb linked on the page.

I put screenshots of pcb, png, and gerbers on the page.

http://www.delorie.com/electronics/hdd_clock/

pcb 1.99z as of June 14th


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

hdd_clock.pcb is the good one.  bad-poly.pcb is the broken one.


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread Ben Jackson
On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 05:42:10PM -0400, DJ Delorie wrote:
 
 I put screenshots of pcb, png, and gerbers on the page.
 
 http://www.delorie.com/electronics/hdd_clock/
 
 pcb 1.99z as of June 14th

The area around C2 is a second-order effect.  The glitch is where the
pulled traces go around the IC pins just below C2.  The rectangular
hole is the result of the dicer cutting through the middle of a pin
(could have been any of the pins at that grid point) vertically.  That
slice got messed up because of the glitch by the IC.

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
b...@ben.com
http://www.ben.com/


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

Is this the same glitch we've seen before, or a new one?


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread DJ Delorie

 The glitch is where the pulled traces go around the IC pins just
 below C2.

Actually, that's a toporouter board, not a pulled board.


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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: need polygon expert again

2010-08-11 Thread Ben Jackson
On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 06:26:06PM -0400, DJ Delorie wrote:
 
 Is this the same glitch we've seen before, or a new one?

I'm sure it's related to previous glitches in the sense that clearing
oddly angled/shaped regions sometimes results in problems.  I'd have to
single step through the clearance to find the bad poly-sub operation
and then go back and single-step through that one.

Maybe we need a debug HID.  ;-)

-- 
Ben Jackson AD7GD
b...@ben.com
http://www.ben.com/


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Re: gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread Bob Paddock
a 1 part library operating a layout service bureau
   Take a look at [1]http://wikicomponents.com The worlds first and
   only truly open source for 2D and 3D PCB component package, part and
   electrical device data.  I did point out to them that
   [2]http://gedasymbols.org , was around for a while, which not really
   my point here.
   I corresponded with Dino Ditta, the person behind the site, when it
   first opened.
   There were some ambiguities about the terms of use, as far as being
   Open Source friendly,
   and he said that was his intention, and that he would clean up the
   ambiguities.  Don't know if he did that.
   He was open to having KiCAD and PCB symbols posted there.  Maybe we
   could get behind his 3D effort rather than DXF?
   Last I looked there were a lot of part numbers, with nothing to back
   them up, which I did complain about to Dino, don't know if he fixed
   that.  Frustrating to spend time searching the list for it to lead to
   nothing.
   --
   [3]http://blog.softwaresafety.net/
   [4]http://www.designer-iii.com/
   [5]http://www.wearablesmartsensors.com/

References

   1. http://wikicomponents.com/
   2. http://gedasymbols.org/
   3. http://blog.softwaresafety.net/
   4. http://www.designer-iii.com/
   5. http://www.wearablesmartsensors.com/


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Re: gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread kai-martin knaak
Bob Paddock wrote:

 a 1 part library operating a layout service bureau
 
 Take a look at http://wikicomponents.com

The site requires registration even for simple reading. :-|

---)kaimartin(---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
Öffentlicher PGP-Schlüssel:
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Re: gEDA-user: Bourns 3386P footprint

2010-08-11 Thread David Griffith

On Wed, 11 Aug 2010, kai-martin knaak wrote:


David Griffith wrote:


I think I got it right, but would someone please double-check this
footprint for a Bourns 3386P trimpot for me?  See


http://www.gedasymbols.org/user/david_griffith/footprints/POT_BOURNS_3386P.fp

* The position of pins looks ok. Their numbers differ from the numbers in 
the data sheet. Is this deliberate?


Yes, I think I flipped 1 and 3 by accident.

* I'd make the annular ring larger to facilitate manual soldering. 80 mils 
seems like a decent size to me. If the annular ring is a handicap for the 
layout, they con be shrunken as needed.


Okay, a few presses of 'S'...


* The outline of your footprint is a bit larger than the real component.


I just crudely rounded up to the nearest 0.05.  How does it look now?

--
David Griffith
dgri...@cs.csubak.edu

A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?


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gEDA-user: seeking am/fm tuning caps

2010-08-11 Thread David Griffith


I just discovered that Ocean State Electronics went out of business, 
leaving me without a source for my favorite AM/FM tuning capacitors.  For 
instance, this one: 
http://web.archive.org/web/20080224154332/http://www.oselectronics.com/ose_p98.htm 
for which I have a footprint here: 
http://www.gedasymbols.org/user/david_griffith/footprints/CAP__BC88-B540.fp


Does anyone know where I can get something similar?  Most of the tuning 
caps I find are air-variable for AM only.


--
David Griffith
dgri...@cs.csubak.edu

A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?


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Re: gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread Bob Paddock
   On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 7:25 PM, kai-martin knaak
   [1]...@familieknaak.de wrote:

   Bob Paddock wrote:
a 1 part library operating a layout service bureau
   
Take a look at [2]http://wikicomponents.com

 The site requires registration even for simple reading. :-|

   Yeah, I complained about that too.  Sorry that I forgot to mention it.

References

   1. mailto:k...@familieknaak.de
   2. http://wikicomponents.com/


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Re: gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread timecop
IPC land pattern wizard in protel/altium is very nice as well.
So nice infact I've been using it for BGA and many-pin count packages
and then exporting to ascii format which my current EDA package can
import.


On Thu, Aug 12, 2010 at 9:43 AM, Bob Paddock bob.padd...@gmail.com wrote:
   On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 7:25 PM, kai-martin knaak
   [1]...@familieknaak.de wrote:

   Bob Paddock wrote:
    a 1 part library operating a layout service bureau
   
    Take a look at [2]http://wikicomponents.com

     The site requires registration even for simple reading. :-|

   Yeah, I complained about that too.  Sorry that I forgot to mention it.

 References

   1. mailto:k...@familieknaak.de
   2. http://wikicomponents.com/



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Re: gEDA-user: pcb: solder paste stencil layers and QFNs

2010-08-11 Thread Andrew Armenia
   Somehow I knew there was an obvious easier way, but I got impatient.
   Though I suspect writing my patch took about as long as modifying all
   the footprints by hand or writing a script would have, splitting up the
   paste is preferable anyway. Next time, perhaps it'll be a script doing
   that.
   Maybe this is similarly obvious, but I suppose it bears repeating that
   all of the paste spot pads should have the same name as the big pad,
   to prevent spurious rats-nest warnings from cropping up.
   -Andrew

   On Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 5:07 PM, DJ Delorie [1...@delorie.com wrote:

 For QFN exposed pads, do this...
 Make a pad for each paste spot
 Add one big pad with the nopaste flag that covers them all
 That way you can control the paste separately from the copper

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References

   1. mailto:d...@delorie.com
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Re: gEDA-user: Commercial CAD, land pattern generators report

2010-08-11 Thread Dave N6NZ

On Aug 11, 2010, at 12:28 PM, John Griessen wrote;
 
 What's a good reference about DXF?

Arghhh... I've spent a bit of time trying to read .dxf correctly.  My first 
shot was for reading .dxf to drive a simple laser cutter that used bastardized 
HP/GL.  I did an ad hoc parser in C after reading Autocad's online 
documentation, and only attempted to pull out the fraction of the information 
that interested me. Let's just say I recommend against that approach. ;)

My next version of the laser cutter CAM used the Ribbonsoft's dxflib (GPL).  
dxflib is C++ and is actually a pretty reasonable interface for reading dxf and 
is very robust.  Writing dxf with it requires a pretty good knowledge of the 
structure of dxf, but reading is straightforward.

About that... the structure of dxf... Imagine a design committee consisting 
entirely of passive-aggressive, 'B' ark chimpanzees that were only convinced to 
join the project for the meeting donuts.  Now imagine the file format they 
would specify.  Now imagine that file format evolved to support things that 
were never originally intended. That is dxf.

I am now working on a new project -- with the intent of reading 2D dxf and 
producing real, proper, good-to-go, CNC machine g-code that doesn't crash the 
milling machine or break tools.  Wish me luck.  (Or volunteer to help??? :)  
Anyway, I'm doing the project in Python, and after looking for a good dxf 
reader in Python, briefly considered putting a Python wrapper around dxflib.  
But that is not a great fit... it's hard to make a Pythonic interface to dxf 
around dxflib.  So... I decided to commit the cardinal sin of all programmers, 
writing my own library... I can get away with that since there is no one to 
fire me for such a silly decision.

And now I finally get to the point of this rambling e-mail.  Since what I want 
is 100%  interoperability with QCad (from Ribbonsoft, uses dxflib for file 
I/O), I concluded that reading the dxflib code very carefully is about the best 
dxf file documentation that is around. Autodesk has a lot of online 
documentation of the file format, and that is indispensable.  dxf comes in 
several versions, and each is documented separately.  The documentation that 
exists on the Autocad web site is reasonably well organized once you learn to 
navigate it.  Be aware, however, that certain 3D entities are *not* documented, 
they are binary blobs and you can only get the spec by paying for a license 
from Autocad and signing an NDA.  So no open source dxf library will ever be 
able to handle all of dxf.  My immediate goal is to write a library that can 
make sense of all 2D information in a complete and coherent way, provide a 
Pythonic interface for reading and writing dxf, and gracefully ignore or 
 perhaps read-and-blobify anything it doesn't understand without crashing or 
hanging.  The not-crashing-and-hanging part will put it ahead of at least some 
commercial alternatives.

HTH

If you are interested in talking about my Python dxf I/O lib we should take 
that off-list.

-dave



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