More Generic Import/Export

Hello James,

On 12/21/12 20:39, James Morrison wrote:

Hello all,

 

I'm happy to see new versions of EAGLE start to integrate import/export

options right into the menu.  That's a good step forward.

 

First, there also needs to be more documentation on the import/export

options that are there.  I think a requirement should be that any ULP used

for import/export should always have a main dialog and not just go to a

"Save As" dialog box.  Then from the main dialog, either a help button or

specific information of what function is performed and what the format of

the files is created or expected (very specific).  As it is, it's not

clear.  For instance, in 6.3.3 PCB editor, what is the format of the file

created by File->Export->Netlist?

It's just the EAGLE netlist like before, nothing new.

 

I'd also like to see a more generic setup.  My suggestion would be for

EAGLE to search a ULP sub-folder named "import" and "export" each time it

runs and populate the import/export menus with any ULP's that are found

there.  That would allow us to get custom ULP's to integrate right into

EAGLE.

Our objective was to put a portion of functionality of general interest and usefulness,

which is currently only covered by ULPs, to a more prominent place

(with special focus on Import/Export).

So we integrated a number of our existing ULPs into the pulldown menus.

Depending on the customer feedback we may make these ULPs more generic or integrate

some of them into our core code.

The choice of ULPs we have now is a tradeoff based on our long experience.

There are a some further ULP candidates but we didn't want to overload our GUI.

This selection may change a little in upcoming releases.

We also discussed making this configurable as you suggest. OTOH we also have

the mechanism to make custom menus in the toolbar. The problem is not that our GUI

is not flexible enough for this. Having the additional mechanism to enhance the

pulldown menus (which also works different, namely with ULP sub directories

and the ULPs therein) causes confusion, at least to the not so experienced users.

That's why we didn't want to go into this direction.

Hope this makes sense to you.

 

Now if you want to setup some rules about what is required in the ULP's

(like a help string) that is fine by me.  A tool (either integrated into

EAGLE or provided as a ULP) to run a check and give some details about what

is found and why things are included or not would be great.  I would

suggest a specific ULP variable is used to give the string that you want to

show up in the File->Export menu.  For instance, I have a PADS netlist

generator and I'd like it to show up so it's easy to see that it's

different than the current netlist export function.  And that current

netlist export needs to indicate what format the output is in.

These are additional mechanisms that we would need if we make the

menus configurable.

Regards,

Walter Spermann

 

You may also want to have a "core" import/export section and then another

section of local routines that are found in these special folders--that

would be OK too.  I'm not sure it would be necessary but I can see why.

 

James.

 

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Walter Spermann

Softwareentwicklung

CadSoft Computer GmbH

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Tel.: 08635/6989-10

www.cadsoft.de

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James Morrison wrote:

...............  I would suggest a specific ULP variable is used to

give the string that you want to show up in the File->Export menu.

For instance, I have a PADS netlist generator and I'd like it to show

up so it's easy to see that it's different than the current netlist

export function.  And that current netlist export needs to indicate

what format the output is in.

 

Maybe when the mouse is over each 'ULP'import/ export of the menu item, a

large tooltip that is based on the #usage within the ULP. That way no new

ULP variable is needed.

Warren

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