Hi Dick, Thanks. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help get this or similar functionality built-in. Wayne and Layne volunteers to do any desired refactoring to drill/plotting in order to reduce logic in the dialogs and create a solid and small API. If this is something you want, please note I am not an expert at C++, however, so I would greatly appreciate an outline in order to increase the chances that the branch will eventually be integrated.
I can't do much more with this functionality until after Maker Faire, so May 20th or so, but I can answer emails and continue to test the Python scripts. Adam Wolf Wayne and Layne, LLC On May 2, 2013 12:46 PM, "Dick Hollenbeck" <[email protected]> wrote: > On 05/01/2013 09:39 AM, Adam Wolf wrote: > > Hi folks, > > > > One of the tasks I've been doing for Wayne and Layne for Kicad is > > command line plot and drill generation. Internally, we're going to > > use it to generate files upon commit to better track progress in the > > distributed team, but externally, we're working with a friend of ours > > who runs a PCB order service. He usually takes gerbers and drill > > files, but through his web interface, you can upload Eagle files and > > it'll "do the right thing" and show you an automatic preview and > > everything. We're trying to let him do the same for Kicad. > > > > This required a few changes, and we've made what we think is the > > minimal set of changes in Kicad to do this. > > > > The patch is attached, and we believe it matches coding standards. > > It's based off of r4123 from last night. > > > > Quickly highlighting the changes we made: > > > > * Added a few files to the scripting interface and a typemap so FILE > > * in C++ turns into file objects in Python > > * Moved GetGerberExtension to common_plot_functions.cpp. I tried > > just exporting the plot file it was in, and had some issues. > > * I moved the fclose outside of CreateDrillFile in > > gendrill_Excellon_writer.cpp. > > This was causing issues in Python. I added an fclose after each time > > CreateDrillFile was called. You pass in a file handle, so I think this > is > > probably ok. > > * Overloaded PLOT_CONTROLLER::OpenPlotfile so it will take a file > extension. > > > > Future work: > > * There is a good amount of logic in the dialogs, for both plotting > > and drill file generation. Because of this, I had to redo some logic > > in the Python program. While there is more testing to be done before > > I hand this off to the PCB order service, I'd like to minimize the > > logic in python for this--if something changes in Kicad regarding > > these files, like the recent NPTH/TH two file drill generation, I > > would prefer the Python script to automatically "do the right thing". > > However, I'm comfortable maintaining these scripts and watching for > > regressions with each build--the Wayne and Layne build cluster already > > does this for the Kicad packages. > > * The scripts are not complete. Right now, they're mostly untested, > > but they prove out the concept. Some of the arguments are unintuitive. > > If you use the scripts provided, and they explode your computer, > > I told you so. If there isn't serious pushback to the concept, I'll > polish > > the scripts up over the next few days and release them along with > > their tests. > > > > Please let me know if there's anything I can do to help this along. > > > > What do you think folks? > > > Adam, > > Thanks for your contributions to KiCad. > > Sorry I have not had time to look at this, but it is something of interest > to me, just > need some time. > > There is something about having scripts that, at least in theory, suggest > being able to > achieve a certain amount of consistency across runs. > > Dick > > > > _______________________________________________ > Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > Post to : [email protected] > Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~kicad-developers > More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp >
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