Modifying ULPs - help appreciated

Question

hi, thanks for clicking. i've been doing some pcb design, and would like to panelise some. i've tried the panelize.ulp, which works kind of ok, but the label alignment is off and it defeats the object of using it if i then have to manually move all of them. i've created my own library, and all my parts have the "name" label centered on the part, whereas by default the originals i've modified are all aligned bottom-right or bottom-left. when panelize.ulp is ran the labels are all offset as if they were still aligned as per the original parts. i've taken a look through the ulp code, and dug through the ulp programming reference doc ( ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/doc/ulp5120_en.pdf ), but there doesn't seem to be a data member for UL_TEXT that applies to the text alignment (page 54 of doc). i can manually edit the .brd file after running the ULP, and add text alignment to the XML, but again, that defeats the purpose of automating the process. screen shots attached of misaligned labels (original part names in black, labels produced by panelising in cyan), and a snap of the .brd code with added alignment code which fixes the issue, but is a pain. any help greatly appreciated. cheers joe 
 Attachments:

autodeskguest · Accepted Answer

On 16/02/2015 10:42 p.m., joe kirby wrote:

hi, thanks for clicking. i've been doing some pcb design, and would like
to panelise some. i've tried the panelize.ulp, which works kind of ok,
but the label alignment is off and it defeats the object of using it if
i then have to manually move all of them.

i've created my own library, and all my parts have the "name" label
centered on the part, whereas by default the originals i've modified are
all aligned bottom-right or bottom-left.

when panelize.ulp is ran the labels are all offset as if they were still
aligned as per the original parts.

i've taken a look through the ulp code, and dug through the ulp
programming reference doc
(ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/doc/ulp5120_en.pdf), but there
doesn't seem to be a data member for UL_TEXT that applies to the text
alignment (page 54 of doc).

i can manually edit the .brd file after running the ULP, and add text
alignment to the XML, but again, that defeats the purpose of automating
the process.

screen shots attached of misaligned labels (original part names in
black, labels produced by panelising in cyan), and a snap of the .brd
code with added alignment code which fixes the issue, but is a pain.

any help greatly appreciated.

cheers

joe

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If you are looking at the XML of the board then you must be using at

least Eagle version 6. So I'm puzzled why you are using version 5.12

copy of the ULP pages.

The ULP language evolves as features are added to Eagle so you need to

read the documentation that applies.

If you look at the HELP for v6.6 you will see the text alignment data

member you talk of exists.

HTH

Warren