How to find current shee t in ULP?

Am 02.12.2016 um 13:54 schrieb Olin Lathrop:

How do I determine the current schematic sheet from a ULP?

if(sheet) sheet(S)

{

    string txt;

    sprintf(txt, "Current sheet: %d", S.number);

    dlgMessageBox(txt);

}

However, the ULP you're trying to write already ship with EAGLE, look

for "editnext-sheet.ulp" and "editprev-sheet.ulp".

Rene

rk wrote on Fri, 02 December 2016 08:01

However, the ULP you're trying to write already ship with EAGLE, look

for "editnext-sheet.ulp" and "editprev-sheet.ulp".

Thanks.  I looked at one of those as a example.  The trick is the "sheet"

built-in statement.

If you look at the help page USER LANGUAGE > OBJECT TYPES, it implies the

only data structure-opening statements are LIBRARY, SCHEMATIC, and BOARD.

I did find SHEET listed as one of the built-in statements later on.

Eagle's help system strikes once again.  It is good for reference if you

know what to look up, but not so good at helping you find things that you

don't know about yet.  Argh.  I really hope AutoDesk does something about

this.  Personally, I'd much rather they spend time on making the

documentation usable for the introductory purpose too, not just for

reference, than messing with the UI.

I really do try to RTFM, but the M has to do its part by making the

information findable for other than looking up details within a known

context.

--

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rk wrote on Fri, 02 December 2016 08:01

However, the ULP you're trying to write already ship with EAGLE, look

for "editnext-sheet.ulp" and "editprev-sheet.ulp".

Thanks.  I looked at one of those as a example.  The trick is the "sheet"

built-in statement.

If you look at the help page USER LANGUAGE > OBJECT TYPES, it implies the

only data structure-opening statements are LIBRARY, SCHEMATIC, and BOARD.

I did find SHEET listed as one of the built-in statements later on.

Eagle's help system strikes once again.  It is good for reference if you

know what to look up, but not so good at helping you find things that you

don't know about yet.  Argh.  I really hope AutoDesk does something about

this.  Personally, I'd much rather they spend time on making the

documentation usable for the introductory purpose too, not just for

reference, than messing with the UI.

I really do try to RTFM, but the M has to do its part by making the

information findable for other than looking up details within a known

context.

--

http://www.eaglecentral.ca :: The original and best browser access to CadSoft EAGLE support forums.  Supported by EAGLE licenses purchased through us :: http://www.eaglelicenses.com

On 3/12/2016 3:41 a.m., Olin Lathrop wrote:

rk wrote on Fri, 02 December 2016 08:01

However, the ULP you're trying to write already ship with EAGLE, look

for "editnext-sheet.ulp" and "editprev-sheet.ulp".

 

Thanks.  I looked at one of those as a example.  The trick is the "sheet"

built-in statement.

 

If you look at the help page USER LANGUAGE > OBJECT TYPES, it implies the

only data structure-opening statements are LIBRARY, SCHEMATIC, and BOARD.

I did find SHEET listed as one of the built-in statements later on.

 

Eagle's help system strikes once again.  It is good for reference if you

know what to look up, but not so good at helping you find things that you

don't know about yet.  Argh.  I really hope AutoDesk does something about

this.  Personally, I'd much rather they spend time on making the

documentation usable for the introductory purpose too, not just for

reference, than messing with the UI.

 

I really do try to RTFM, but the M has to do its part by making the

information findable for other than looking up details within a known

context.

 

I find the HELP very good when writing ULPs.

The key is for one to choose the correct keyword to search on.

Don't expect it to work well with "How do I do....?" It's not that style

of tool.

Identify the one word that should be within the explanation.

Sometimes you need to have a second word choice to approach from a

second angle.

Sometimes you don't know how the functionality is described so knowing

the best keyword is harder to know but that shows the need to have read

the manual at least once.

So the sheet example is a good example as you know you subject is sheets.

I always remove make the search singular so search for sheet and not sheets

If you key the word sheet, all pages containing the keyword are returned

in bold.

The area of interest is to do with 'User Language' so click on that and

expand the tree , looking for bold type.

There can be a lot of reading under 'Object Types' so my approach is

always to get rid of the remaining scraps first. As with Olins's case,

that is where the seed of the answer lay. This often the case as many

powerful commands are outliers from the commands within the Object types.

At other times I have used multiple words that I feel would be together

in the explanation. 'sheet context' goes exactly to Olin's answer as its

the only place with the word combination, but once you get there it's

not obvious that it would be the answer to the question. In this case

you need to recall that once the current sheet context is instantiated

you will be able to read its number.

So, while many of the help explanations have examples that clarify and

educate, there are others that need another paragraph to enlighten the

reader about what they have just read so they reach that " Oh! I see"

moment.

My view regarding documentation is one of education and to focus

elsewhere, away from the app with a repository of mini-tutorials that

explain the product and address questions, no matter where you are in

the Eagle leaning process. Possibly along the lines of the W3schools

site. (http://www.w3schools.com/)

The goal should be for the forum to go very quiet and only solutions not

available from this source to be raised.

Warren

warrenbrayshaw wrote on Fri, 02 December 2016 14:29

I find the HELP very good when writing ULPs.

Yes, the information is generally there.  Sometimes searches work, as you

show.  Other times, you don't know what to ask, or a likely keyword is so

generic that it get so many hits to be useless.

The real problem is not the documentation that is there.  It serves the

reference purpose when you know what you want to do, just need to look up

some details.

The problem is lack of any introductory or overview documentation.  The 10

page Introduction to ULPs and How to Use Them is missing.  That goes for

every other general Eagle capability.  This is not the same as reading the

existing help.  Diving into details without the larger context is no way to

learn, and all the details are clutter that detract from learning the

higher level concepts.  Once you have those concepts, you are ready to ask

specific question about details of commands.  The existing help does work

for that, but not to get you to that level.

In any case, once I found the schematic built-in command, writing the ULP

was easy.  I know these already exist, but as a exercise to learn and

verify that I understood things correctly, I wrote my own.  I also comment

my ULPs, unlike most other people apparently.  Here is my ULP to advance to

the next schematic sheet:

#usage "

h1. Go to next schematic sheet

int oldsheet;                     //1-N number of the current sheet

int lastsheet;                    //number of last existing schematic

sheet

string cmd;                       //command to execute on exit

//

//   Start of main program.

//

  sheet (sh) {                    //open the current sheet

    oldsheet = sh.number;         //get the 1-N number of the current

sheet

    }

  lastsheet = 0;                  //init last sheet number to invalid

  schematic (sch) {               //open the whole schematic

    sch.sheets(sh) {              //loop thru the sheets of the schematic

      lastsheet = max(lastsheet, sh.number); //save largest sheet number

      }

    }

  if (oldsheet < lastsheet)

    {                             //there is a sheet to advance to

      sprintf (cmd, "edit .s%d;\n", oldsheet + 1);

      exit (cmd);

      }

    else {                        //already at last sheet

      exit (EXIT_SUCCESS);        //do nothing

      }

I tied these ULPs to hot keys in the schematic section of the eagle.scr

file, and it works great.

One disappointment was that actions can only be assigned to function,

letter, numbers, and backspace keys.  I really wanted to assign these ULPs

to the left and right arrows.  Those keys aren't otherwise used in Eagle,

and that would make going thru pages forwards and backwards just like a PDF

file with Acrobat Reader.

Is there really a good reason Eagle couldn't allow assignment to the arrow

keys and other special keys?  If not, that would be a nice feature to add.

I suppose that should be the topic of another thread.

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