Version control

On 6/28/2010 8:17 PM, David Ingebretsen wrote:

I am a one man shop, nonetheless, I find I need to establish some kind of

revision control. I'm struggling trying to find the best way in Eagle to

keep track of notes, changes, etc.

1. I'd like to have a way to automatically/easily bump the revision of a

schematic/PCB. Something like version control in software design.

2. I'd like a straightforward way to track the changes and keep notes and

comments. It's a pain to add text one line at a time on the schematic

itself and I find the supplied "frames" to be a bit cumbersome to use.

>

I've struck out trying to find anything in the user manual or in the list.

>

>

I've looked through the download section for ULPs, but didn't find

anything.

>

I find I'm already getting lost in revisions.

>

Thanks for any advice.

Hi David,

Why not simply use a version control program. I've communicated with

several engineers and most of them recommend Subversion. It's open

source (Free) and does a good job. If you like to use a GUI interface

then Tortoise SVN or Rabbit SVN might be a good choice.

Hth,

Jorge Garcia

On 6/28/2010 8:17 PM, David Ingebretsen wrote:

I am a one man shop, nonetheless, I find I need to establish some kind of

revision control. I'm struggling trying to find the best way in Eagle to

keep track of notes, changes, etc.

1. I'd like to have a way to automatically/easily bump the revision of a

schematic/PCB. Something like version control in software design.

2. I'd like a straightforward way to track the changes and keep notes and

comments. It's a pain to add text one line at a time on the schematic

itself and I find the supplied "frames" to be a bit cumbersome to use.

>

I've struck out trying to find anything in the user manual or in the list.

>

>

I've looked through the download section for ULPs, but didn't find

anything.

>

I find I'm already getting lost in revisions.

>

Thanks for any advice.

Hi David,

Why not simply use a version control program. I've communicated with

several engineers and most of them recommend Subversion. It's open

source (Free) and does a good job. If you like to use a GUI interface

then Tortoise SVN or Rabbit SVN might be a good choice.

Hth,

Jorge Garcia

Jorge Garcia wrote on Tue, 29 June 2010 11:41

On 6/28/2010 8:17 PM, David Ingebretsen wrote:

I am a one man shop, nonetheless, I find I need to establish some

kind of

revision control. I'm struggling trying to find the best way in

Eagle to

keep track of notes, changes, etc.

1. I'd like to have a way to automatically/easily bump the revision

of a

schematic/PCB. Something like version control in software design.

2. I'd like a straightforward way to track the changes and keep

notes and

comments. It's a pain to add text one line at a time on the

schematic

itself and I find the supplied "frames" to be a bit cumbersome to

use.

>

I've struck out trying to find anything in the user manual or in

the list.

>

>

I've looked through the download section for ULPs, but didn't find

anything.

>

I find I'm already getting lost in revisions.

>

Thanks for any advice.

 

Hi David,

 

Why not simply use a version control program. I've communicated with

several engineers and most of them recommend Subversion. It's open

source (Free) and does a good job. If you like to use a GUI interface

then Tortoise SVN or Rabbit SVN might be a good choice.

 

Hth,

 

Jorge Garcia

Hi Jorge,

To answer your question, because I hadn't even thought about a version

control wrapper around my Eagle projects. Thanks for the idea. I took a

look at Subversion. It would certainly track the file versions, etc. but it

still doesn't do what I was wanting. I was really hoping Eagle had built

into it a way to track revisions and notes as part of the schematic/PCB

file itself. It looks like Subversion is just a wrapper on the outside.

I wanted the ability to mimic a paper system. Where a schematic is copied,

changes are made to the copy, the version is bumped, and notes/dates are

added to the drawing to indicate what was done and why.

Like, Eagle lets you add a description to a project directory, but not to

the files within a project.

Thanks again.

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

Eagle lets you add a description to a project directory, but not to

the files within a project.

Um, there are "layers"!  I've been adding an "Edit history" layer to

boards (also applicable to schematics), and keeping it updated manually.

  It requires some discipline (but does does any version control

mechanism), but it's pretty useful.  Naturally, you have the automatic

backups that EAGLE makes to save yourself from errors, and can

periodically rename to new version numbers or use conventional version

control tools to preserve old or intermediate versions.

SVN seems awfully complex for a one-man shop; I've been experimenting

with RCS (a sort of grand-daddy of version control tools.)  It should be

possible to stick some ULPs and more automatic tools around the tool,

the layer, and perhaps some "components" that store version information,

but I haven't gotten very far...

http://picasaweb.google.com/westfw/ArduinoStuff#5488437935770995842

On Tue, 29 Jun 2010, Bill Westfield wrote to us saying :

>SVN seems awfully complex for a one-man shop;

Nonsense! SVN is really easy once set up, and even the server admin

isn't hard. I use it for all my stuff, and I'm a "one man shop". It's

easier than RCS.

I haven't checked, but I suspect the fixed length keyword mechanism

would work in Eagle files (it does in MS Office, where normal keywords

kill files big time). That would allow the latest version to be

automatically included in your schematic etc.

--

Rob Pearce                       http://www.bdt-home.demon.co.uk

The contents of this | Windows NT crashed.

message are purely   | I am the Blue Screen of Death.

my opinion. Don't    | No one hears your screams.

believe a word.      |

Robert Pearce wrote:

>Bill Westfield wrote :

>>SVN seems awfully complex for a one-man shop;

>

>Nonsense! SVN is really easy once set up, and even the server admin

>isn't hard. I use it for all my stuff, and I'm a "one man shop". It's

>easier than RCS.

>

>I haven't checked, but I suspect the fixed length keyword mechanism

>would work in Eagle files (it does in MS Office, where normal keywords

>kill files big time). That would allow the latest version to be

>automatically included in your schematic etc.

sadly keyword expansion doesn't work. It messes with eagles licence

mechanism.

And I'm still looking for a usable diffing tool for eagle schematic

and board files 8-)

--

Lorenz

On Thu, 1 Jul 2010, Lorenz wrote to us saying :

>

>sadly keyword expansion doesn't work. It messes with eagles licence

>mechanism.

>

Oh, that's a pity. Is that a hang-over from the file-corrupting evil

licence scheme of pre-V4 Eagle?

>And I'm still looking for a usable diffing tool for eagle schematic

>and board files 8-)

Now that would be nice! But it's on my wish-list for every graphical

tool I've ever used.

--

Rob Pearce                       http://www.bdt-home.demon.co.uk

The contents of this | Windows NT crashed.

message are purely   | I am the Blue Screen of Death.

my opinion. Don't    | No one hears your screams.

believe a word.      |

Robert Pearce wrote:

Lorenz wrote:

>>sadly keyword expansion doesn't work. It messes with eagles licence

>>mechanism.

>>

>Oh, that's a pity. Is that a hang-over from the file-corrupting evil

>licence scheme of pre-V4 Eagle?

yes 8-(

>>And I'm still looking for a usable diffing tool for eagle schematic

>>and board files 8-)

>

>Now that would be nice! But it's on my wish-list for every graphical

>tool I've ever used.

I have a very clumsy workaround though:

export all schematic pages / board layers as bitmaps and compare the

versions with a grafical diff tools like TortoiseIDiff (borrowed from

TortoiseSVN).

--

Lorenz

Lorenz wrote:

Robert Pearce wrote:

>> Lorenz wrote:

>>> sadly keyword expansion doesn't work. It messes with eagles licence

>>> mechanism.

>>>

>> Oh, that's a pity. Is that a hang-over from the file-corrupting evil

>> licence scheme of pre-V4 Eagle?

 

yes 8-(

 

 

>>> And I'm still looking for a usable diffing tool for eagle schematic

>>> and board files 8-)

>> Now that would be nice! But it's on my wish-list for every graphical

>> tool I've ever used.

 

I have a very clumsy workaround though:

 

export all schematic pages / board layers as bitmaps and compare the

versions with a grafical diff tools like TortoiseIDiff (borrowed from

TortoiseSVN).

You can also generate gerbers for each verstion,  read both into a gerb

viewer,  turn off all but two layers (corresponding layers in the two

version),  and then see the changes.   Since most viewers will xor the

colors of the two layers you will see changes in pretty high contrast.

  I don't know if a similar method for schematics however.

Jim

"Jorge Garcia" <jorge@cadsoftusa.com> wrote in message

news:i0dba6$18r$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

On 6/28/2010 8:17 PM, David Ingebretsen wrote:

>> I am a one man shop, nonetheless, I find I need to establish some kind of

>> revision control. I'm struggling trying to find the best way in Eagle to

>> keep track of notes, changes, etc.

>> 1. I'd like to have a way to automatically/easily bump the revision of a

>> schematic/PCB. Something like version control in software design.

>> 2. I'd like a straightforward way to track the changes and keep notes and

>> comments. It's a pain to add text one line at a time on the schematic

>> itself and I find the supplied "frames" to be a bit cumbersome to use.

>>

>> I've struck out trying to find anything in the user manual or in the

>> list.

>>

>>

>> I've looked through the download section for ULPs, but didn't find

>> anything.

>>

>> I find I'm already getting lost in revisions.

>>

>> Thanks for any advice.

>

Hi David,

>

Why not simply use a version control program. I've communicated with

several engineers and most of them recommend Subversion. It's open source

(Free) and does a good job. If you like to use a GUI interface then

Tortoise SVN or Rabbit SVN might be a good choice.

>

Hth,

>

Jorge Garcia

I've been using subversion with TortoiseSVN, and it works great.  Right now

I'm running a subversion server and repository on a QNAP network disk, but

for an easy setup I'd recommend an Ubuntu server for subversion.  You can

just use "apt-get install" to install subversion and svn-serve.  Setting up

the repository is straight forward, there are a number of how-to's online

that will give you an easy step-by-step.  Tortoise SVN is a subversion

client which integrates into windows.  Once its installed, you can just

right click on things for all your version control needs.

Sean