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Autodesk EAGLE
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Autodesk EAGLE
EAGLE User Chat (English) visualizing changes from EAGLE's backup files.
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Related

visualizing changes from EAGLE's backup files.

WestfW
WestfW over 13 years ago

I've put together an "interesting" shell script recently to aid in

visualizing the changes that you've made in a board (or schematic)

based on the backup files that EAGLE automatically makes as you

save new versions of your design...

 

More info here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Visualizing-EAGLE-Edits-with-a-Gerber-Viewer/

 

Let me know if you have thoughts or suggestions for improvements.

 

BillW

 

-


Intro -


The EAGLE Schematic/PCB editor keeps up to 10 backups of your board and

schematics, reflecting the board start at the last times you saved you

work.  This can be very valuable if you screw something up, but I've

always been a bit frustrated that it isn't easier to look at those files

to see what changed in which revision.  (EAGLE won't directly open the

backup files, so you have to rename each backup before you can look at

it.  And EAGLE won't open multiple files at one time, so that you can

compare them side-by-side, either.)

 

Now, one way to look at a PCB is to generate gerbers (the standard

"plotter format" for PCBs), and use one of the gerber viewers to look at

those.  This has the advantage of simplifying the "picture", AND most

gerber viewers will load up multiple layers of a PCB so that you can see

them all together.  I realized that it would also let you display

multiple copies of the same layer, so that you could "flip" through them

and (hopefully) notice changes.  In fact, the gerber viewer I use

(gerbv, an open-source utility that runs on Windows, Macs, and Linuxes),

has a display mode where the layer are displayed with their colors XORed

together.  (In theory, this is an option to allow you to look at

multiple layers at once, although in reality how well it works depends

on the actual bit patterns of the colors used for each layer.)

 

However, if you DO pick your layer colors carefully, you can display two

(or more) layers that are almost the same, and have the differences

HIGHLIGHTED for you!  This seemed close to ideal for visualizing the

changes in a PCB design.  Well, for small changes, anyway.  We'll have

to see how the community feels about its usefulness.

 

All it needed was some sort of script that would go through all the

backup files, generate appropriate gerber files, and then load up the

gerber viewer having given each file an appropriate set of color, color

mixing mode, and other display parameters.  It seems to be somewhat useful.

 

 

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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 13 years ago

    Bill Westfield wrote:

     

     

    >(gerbv, an open-source utility that runs on Windows, Macs, and Linuxes),

    >has a display mode where the layer are displayed with their colors XORed

     

    Nice, thanks for the information!

     

    I used bitmap exports and compared them with Beyond Compare.

     

    Oliver

     

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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 13 years ago

    On 08/02/2011 02:25 AM, Bill Westfield wrote:

    I've put together an "interesting" shell script recently to aid in

    visualizing the changes that you've made in a board (or schematic)

    based on the backup files that EAGLE automatically makes as you

    save new versions of your design...

     

    More info here:

    http://www.instructables.com/id/Visualizing-EAGLE-Edits-with-a-Gerber-Viewer/

     

     

    Let me know if you have thoughts or suggestions for improvements.

     

    Bill,

     

    This is very useful.  I'm using gerbv 2.0.1 on linux.  It didn't

    understand the gerbv-file-version, but deleting that first line from the

    gerber project file solved the problem.

     

    It also left the directory in /tmp.  Adding:

       rm -f $TMP

    at the end of the script solved it.

     

    I can easily adapt this to pull back versions out of perforce.

     

    Enjoy,

        - Chuck

     

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  • WestfW
    WestfW over 13 years ago in reply to Former Member

    On 8/2/11 12:57 AM, Oliver Betz wrote:

    I used bitmap exports and compared them with Beyond Compare.

     

    I had never heard of "Beyond compare."  It looks interesting; thanks.

    Does it have abilities to look at more than two images at once?  One

    of the nice things about gerbv (and gerber views in general, I think)

    is that they're set up to handle a relatively large number of "layers."

     

     

    > I'm using gerbv 2.0.1 on linux.  It didn't

    > understand the gerbv-file-version

     

    Hmm.  I guess the features I'm using aren't version-specific, but

    I wasn't sure.  It would be nice if the file format were better

    documented...

     

     

    > It also left the directory in /tmp

     

    Left over from debugging, sort of.  I can't decide whether I want to

    leave the files there or not...

     

    Thanks for your comments.  I'm particularly happy when people are able

    to do more than say "yes it works", or "it doesn't work" !

     

    BillW

     

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  • Former Member
    Former Member over 13 years ago in reply to WestfW

    Bill Westfield wrote:

     

    >On 8/2/11 12:57 AM, Oliver Betz wrote:

    >> I used bitmap exports and compared them with Beyond Compare.

    >I had never heard of "Beyond compare."  It looks interesting; thanks.

     

    It's priceless.

     

    >Does it have abilities to look at more than two images at once?  One

     

    not to my knowledge

     

    >of the nice things about gerbv (and gerber views in general, I think)

    >is that they're set up to handle a relatively large number of "layers."

     

    correct.

     

    I'm using gerbv 2.0.1 on linux.  It didn't

     

    that's not from my posting.

     

    Oliver

     

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