PreSales question

Hi Graham,

could you please check whether Easy-PC can export any other data format? Maybe there is a fromat we can support/convert with the help of an EAGLE ULP....

Regards,

Richard

Richard,

Thanks for the reply....

I just ran up the app ad it claims to output in 'Generic Netlist' format, and also DXF, which apparently varies with context (ie schematic, pcb etc. ??.

Sorry - but I am NOT a CAD expert :-O, although I have heard of these formats over many years - I have never (yet) had much cause to use them - apart from NetLists - which I used to produce from Orcad MANY years back ;-)).

I can certainly dump out some of these formats and send them to you if they would help :-O.

I currently have 4 'designs' created in Easy-PC. Whilst this package is fine for most of my needs - it has crashed a few times on me and then corrupted my design files (unbeknown to me until some weeks later!!). This (obviously) makes me VERY nervous about committing ANY design to this package for long-term production (albeit smallish quantities - probably in production batches of 20/40 - 100 or so) :-O.

I am about half-way through your tutorial, and when completed will probably move on to trying to migrate (by hand if necessary) the first (one-sheet schematic) board - as its only 100 x 35 mm.

Thanks again....

Best Regards

Graham

Hi again,

DXF sounds not too bad. Although it is a "drawing" format which does not contain electrical information it could be possile to import it into EAGLE and use it at least as a kind of drawing pattern. There are tools that allow importing DXF into EAGLE in the CadSoft Download area...  ==> http://www.cadsoft.de/download.htm, Misc directory. Please look for the file dxf2scr-1.zip. This could work. There is a further tool created by one of our customers which is called eagle_pcb_power_tools5_09beta.exe. This can be used for small files for free. If you have larger projects you have to pay for it. Contact details come with the tool. I hope this helps.

Best regards,
Richard

Richard,

Thnaks for the further response - but these apps do nothing :-((.

The first simply tells me that it has imported 0 lines, 0  polygons etc.

The second (the beta app) actually imports some of my text (Like the drawing outline text, and a couple of text fields I added to the design) - but nothing else, no lines, symbols, junctions etc. etc.

The second does however point me at a free DXF file viewer app, which reads my DXF file and shows me pretty much (I just had a quick look and didn't scrutinise it ;-) my whole schematic - so it looks like the DXF export was quite successful, but that the DXF to SCR conversion, or the Eagle import didn't actually recognise most of the DXF file contents :-((.

In fact its the conversion - as looking at the SCR file it produced - there is almost nothing in it :-((.

It does give me a warning saying this is a demo version so not ALL data will be converted :-O. - Looks like it should read MOST of the data won't be converted ;-).

If these are the best import apps available - looks like I will have to do a manual conversion - ie start from scratch :-(( - or write my own converters - which I don't have time for.

Thanks again

Best Regards

Graham

Hi Graham,

could you send me one of the DXF files you exported? So I could check this for you... mailto:hotline@cadsoft.de

Regards,

Richard

Hi Graham,

Make sure to "explode" your files before exporting them as DXF. None of the import utilities can handle polylines well, so make sure that whatever utility you're using to export to DXF generates an exploded file with just lines and arcs, no polylines.

I think you'll find that dxf2scr will be more effective.

hth,

Jorge Garcia

Hi Graham,

Make sure to "explode" your files before exporting them as DXF. None of the import utilities can handle polylines well, so make sure that whatever utility you're using to export to DXF generates an exploded file with just lines and arcs, no polylines.

I think you'll find that dxf2scr will be more effective.

hth,

Jorge Garcia