Added Generic Commands to CAM Processor

On 11/12/2010 08:28 AM, James Morrison wrote:

James Morrison wrote on Thu, 11 November 2010 11:10

>> With all these changes the CAM processor would really become "Export

>> Manager" or something like that.

>

One other use of this is would be to run a script to delete those really

annoying .gpi files that are created for the gerbers.  They confuse board

houses when you send them and they have no use that I've ever seen.  So I

always just delete them.  But it's an unnecessary step that I should be

able to get EAGLE to do somehow.   A cleanup script to run as the last

section of a CAM job would be a good place to do it.

 

James.

James,

This is an excellent suggestion.  Two additional sections could be added

to the cam file - one for PRE-CAM actions, and one for POST-CAM actions.

    Description="..."

    Section=camprep

    Section=TopScreen

    ...

    Section=Drill

    Section=campost

    ULP="drillcfg.ulp"

    ULP="genxydata.ulp"

    ...

    ULP="cam-wrapup.ulp"

    ULP="/usr/local/lib/my-cam-stuff.ulp"

We're all familiar with drillcfg.ulp, but it could be modified to

automatically save without mods in inches.  "cam-wrapup.ulp" can launch

a shell to run a shell script.  It could also produce the x-y data,

clean up the .gpi files, and zip everything together to send to the fab

house.

The CAM processor would recognize the exit status of the ULP.  If

non-zero, stop the job.

The capabilities are interesting with an added feature like this.

Or script it in TCL and it'll run on all platforms.

On 11/12/2010 08:25 AM, James Morrison wrote:

The problem with the shell script approach, is that isn't OS

independent. I use EAGLE on all three platforms so it would require 2 or

3 different scripts to be maintained. I don't want that. The CAM processor,

> with a few extensions, would fit the bill nicely. But again, I don't

> care how it gets done.

You could write a single Bourne shell script, and use Cygwin to run it

on Windows.  It should run natively on Linux and Mac, as long as you

keep to the basics.

-Dave

On 11/12/2010 12:25 AM, Klaus Schmidinger wrote:

On 11/11/10 17:10, James Morrison wrote:

>> One final improvement to the CAM processor.  It would be great to have a

>> "command" device where you could specify an EAGLE command to run, like

>> running a ULP.  If this was strictly a "ULP" command that would be OK too.

>>

>> Doing this would allow for auto-generation of BOM and x-y data when the CAM

>> file is processed.  This would help ensure those files match the PCB gerber

>> files since they are all created at the same point in time.

>>

>> With all these changes the CAM processor would really become "Export

>> Manager" or something like that.

 

Your last three suggestions sound like you're trying to cram things

into the CAM Processor that could be easily (and much more powerful)

be done with a simple shell script (or "batch file", in Windows-speak ;-).

 

Klaus Schmidinger

I support James' suggestion.

James Morrison wrote on Thu, 11 November 2010 11:10

With all these changes the CAM processor would really become "Export

Manager" or something like that.

One other use of this is would be to run a script to delete those really

annoying .gpi files that are created for the gerbers.  They confuse board

houses when you send them and they have no use that I've ever seen.  So I

always just delete them.  But it's an unnecessary step that I should be

able to get EAGLE to do somehow.   A cleanup script to run as the last

section of a CAM job would be a good place to do it.

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

Specializing in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

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

Morten Leikvoll wrote on Fri, 12 November 2010 04:21

"Klaus Schmidinger" <Klaus.Schmidinger@cadsoft.de[/email]> wrote in

message

news:ibitlj$oev$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...[/email]

Your last three suggestions sound like you're trying to cram

things

into the CAM Processor that could be easily (and much more

powerful)

be done with a simple shell script (or "batch file", in

Windows-speak .

 

I guess you could use the same logic to leave out the cam gui all

together.

Maybe the solution is a "script tree" in the control panel, with a gui

 

helping you make the script/batchfile. Or you could rename the "cam

jobs" to

"batch jobs" (and rethink the intention of it) and listen to James'

suggestion (which I have suggested before and support fully).

Thanks Morten.

Like Morten, I don't really care what you call it or how exactly it gets

implemented.  Let me restate it in slightly more generic terms.

It would nice to be able to configure EAGLE to generate ALL output files

required with one user command (be that a script, a button, ...).  The

output required in my cases would be gerbers, drill files, mechanical

drawings in PDF (DWG would be better), schematics in PDF, bom and x-y data

in .csv.

All of these files are required to support the manufacturing of the

product.  It is absolutely imperative that they all are generated from

exactly the same design file.  So give the user an atomic operation (i.e.

once the user starts it will carry out to completion) to create all the

required documents.

The problem with the shell script approach, is that isn't OS independent.

I use EAGLE on all three platforms so it would require 2 or 3 different

scripts to be maintained.  I don't want that.  The CAM processor, with a

few extensions, would fit the bill nicely.  But again, I don't care how it

gets done.

James.

--

James Morrison  ~~~  Stratford Digital

Specializing in CadSoft EAGLE

• Online Sales to North America

• Electronic Design Services

• EAGLE Enterprise Toolkit

--

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

"Klaus Schmidinger" <Klaus.Schmidinger@cadsoft.de> wrote in message

news:ibitlj$oev$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

Your last three suggestions sound like you're trying to cram things

into the CAM Processor that could be easily (and much more powerful)

be done with a simple shell script (or "batch file", in Windows-speak .

I guess you could use the same logic to leave out the cam gui all together.

Maybe the solution is a "script tree" in the control panel, with a gui

helping you make the script/batchfile. Or you could rename the "cam jobs" to

"batch jobs" (and rethink the intention of it) and listen to James'

suggestion (which I have suggested before and support fully).

On 11/11/10 17:10, James Morrison wrote:

One final improvement to the CAM processor.  It would be great to have a

"command" device where you could specify an EAGLE command to run, like

running a ULP.  If this was strictly a "ULP" command that would be OK too.

 

Doing this would allow for auto-generation of BOM and x-y data when the CAM

file is processed.  This would help ensure those files match the PCB gerber

files since they are all created at the same point in time.

 

With all these changes the CAM processor would really become "Export

Manager" or something like that.

Your last three suggestions sound like you're trying to cram things

into the CAM Processor that could be easily (and much more powerful)

be done with a simple shell script (or "batch file", in Windows-speak ;-).

Klaus Schmidinger

--

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