Comparing ".brd" files

SMD111 wrote on Wed, 25 November 2015 19:10

Is there a ULP which can find and show the differences between two

layouts?

Thank you.

 

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This might be useful: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/eagle_automation/0.1.12

I haven't set it up and got it working myself but I have used it as one of

my clients set it up on their site. Basically they had it set so you could

check two versions of a board into git and then show the differences

visually between the two boards by way of a "heat map" of where the changes

were. It worked on schematics too and made reviewing changes and breeze.

Best Regards,

Rachael

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I use the "diff" command. Works fine for me.

Thank you, but I know nothing about Python.

I do not find the "diff" command. Just to clarify, I use EAGLE 6.4 Professional for Windows.

Eagle Professional on Windows isn't a limitation to doing what has been

suggested.

You could use Windiff which will show you the changes in the XML board file

but the down side is it's very low level and not in any graphical format

which works fine but people some may not like viewing changes like this.

You can install a Python interpreter for windows and then follow the

instructions in Eagle Automation and hopefully get that working (I haven't

tried but it should be possible). It'll be more work but if it does work

then you'll have something that will give a graphical representation of

where things have changed.

Do you put your .brd file into a version control system like Git? If so

then you could look at the differences in there too at a basic textual

level (as per diff as it will do this within the VCS) and the bonus with

git is that if you were to get eagle automation working you could then see

visible differences between different board versions stored in git.

Other than that I don't have any other suggestions I'm afraid. You might

want to think about putting it as a suggestion for a future version of

Eagle in the eagle.suggest forum.

Best Regards,

Rachael

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SMD111 wrote:

 

I do not find the "diff" command. Just to clarify, I use EAGLE 6.4 Professional for Windows.

One of the many reasons I switched to Linux. You can install "diff" on windows if you like from here:

http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/diffutils.htm

I did not realize that the ".brd" file format is XML.

Of course I can find many ways to compare text files. The problem with that is that undone edits still show up as differences: if I rip up a trace, then rout that trace again and save under a different name, I will still have the same exact board but two different files. It would be much better to be able to view the differences.

So I took it to the next level and decided to compare the actual Gerber files generated from two .brd files.

Gerbv (http://gerbv.gpleda.org/) uses different color for each imported layer, so I was able to immediately see the difference between two ".cmp" files (or ".sol", etc). I guess this is the simplest way to compare boards, although somewhat slow.

Am 25.11.2015 um 20:10 schrieb SMD111:

Is there a ULP which can find and show the differences between two

layouts?

Thank you.

 

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I solve this problem by

- export image for both boards

- use "Beyond Compare" to compare images.

You will see the differences in a graphical view.

Both steps are done with a few mouse clicks. By the way, beyond compare

is my absolute favourite tool. I use it daily for many years now. It is

very affordable but not free.

Irfanview (free) allows to

- load image1

- invert image1

- insert overlay (image2)

The view of the differences is even better. Irfanview can be used

through commandline.

Good luck.