johnatl/pcbgcode

This is the repo for pcb-gcode, a plugin for the Eagle schematic and board layout program. This plugin allows you to make printed circuit boards without chemicals using a router or milling machine.

pcbgcode's Issues

Milling the board outline, take 2

Hi John,

another topic I stumbeled over when milling the outline of my boards is, I miss holding tabs distributed around the circumference of the board to hold it in place.
Is there a similarly simple trick like with the line thickness?

Harald

Preview doesn't start, get error messages instead

Hi John,

if I check "Show preview" in the setup ULP and then run "make my board", I don't get a preview but error messages as below:

[edit]
Message translated: "There is no app associated with the file to perform this action. Install an app, or create an association on the Default Apps settings page if an app is already installed."
[\edit]

This problem is not a new one (not correlated with the Alpha version of pcb-gcode), but sorrily I'm unable to give the exact time spot, when the problems first occured.

I already updated and lastly reinstalled Java and Processing, but to no avail.
I'm working with Windows 10, fully patched.

[edit2]
If I go to "...\pcb-gcode-3.7.0\viewer" and start "viewer.pde" and then select "run" manually, the preview is displayed correctly.
If I go to "...\pcb-gcode-3.7.0\viewer\applet" and start "viewer.jar" manually, the preview is displayed correctly.
[\edit2]

[edit3]
If I start "...\pcb-gcode-3.7.0\viewer\application.windows64\viewer.exe" I get displayed a demo layout.
The same with "...\pcb-gcode-3.7.0\viewer\application.windows32\viewer.exe".
On the other hand, if I start "...\pcb-gcode-3.7.0\viewer\application.windows\viewer.exe" the error message is displayed, as above.

The difference is apparently when looking at the icons of the different viewer apps:

Obviously there is no file association with the viewer.exe in the "windows" folder, and apparently, the ULP calls this not associated viewer.exe.

If I edit the calling line 132 in "pcb-gcode.ulp" from
system(g_path + "/viewer/application.windows/viewer.exe");
to read
system(g_path + "/viewer/application.windows32/viewer.exe");
or
system(g_path + "/viewer/application.windows64/viewer.exe");
the error message is not displayed, but there is also no preview window :(

So, where can I define which viewer to use?
[\edit3]

Thanks!

Harald

Images for pcb-gcode-setup aren't found, causing window to be larger than screen.

Milling the board outline performs "climbing"

If I place a wire around the board outline in the miling layer, the generated milling path is clockwise around the board, so the mill works climbing.

As with etching, I would prefer "normal" milling for the board outline, too, since at this, the inner edge of the milled trench (the board) is the important side.

Good: The hole is milled "normal" (not climbing) as described in your mail.

Harald

Compatibility of pcb-gecode with EAGLE version

Hi John,

you might add EAGLE version 7.x to the proven as compatible versions in the "setup" ULP.
I use version EAGLE 7.7 since a long time and had no issues (besides the "climb/not climb" and the "drilling/spotting holes" as described on my homepage.

Your current Alpha version seems to run, too, but not thoroughly tested, still.
Presumably the "drilling/spotting holes" is not fixed, since the changes of Alexander Arkusha are not there in the Alpha.

Harald

Don't generate files that are not selected as wanted

If I make a one sided board, I select "generate top xxxx".

Especially for "milling" - in the sense of "cutting the board outline" or "cutting a hole" - seems to be sufficient to do it from one side, e.g the top side of the board.

So why do you generate top and bottom mill-files?
Even on a twosided board holes and the circumference are cutting through the board and one mill file will be enough.

Moving the checkbox from the "Board" pane to two checkboxes in the "Top Side" and "Bottom Side" pane, respectively, will do the trick easily.

Just an idea...
Harald

Does PCB-GCode Work with Latest Eagle Version on Mac?

Wondering if PCB-Gcode works on Eagle 9.6 on Mac. It seems to throw an error when I try to run it:

**/Applications/EAGLE-9.6.2/examples/ulps/examples/pcb-gcode.ulp(10):

Unable to open the include file 'source/pcb-gcode.h'**

Thank you!

Milling the board outline

Hi John,

when I try to mill my board using the milling layer in EAGLE, the milling bit has no offset and the board becomes too small by half the cutter diameter.
Do I miss the place where the milling bit diameter can be specified, or is that an omission in pcb-gcode?
Thanks!

Harald

Use small endmill to mill holes of various sizes

From Dave Z:
Hello. I love the pcbgcode add on but I can't use it. I have an ATC on my stepcraft 420 machine which is what I use for making boards but it only holds 5 bits and many of the parts I use have several different sized holes. What I have been doing to work around this is exporting the DXF file and importing it into VCarve. Then I use a 1/32 end mill and do a profile cut inside each hole.
I'm not much of a coder but I would think that this would be fairly easy enough to add and it would save having to have multiple drills in a rack as well as being able to cut even large holes for mounting etc.

Milling with 3 bits

I John, here I show you what I have done using 3 bits: 0.10 - 0.7 - 3.0 and here I have implemented:
I have run pcb gcode 3 times, changing the dimension of the tool to 0.10, 0.8 (0.7 + 0.1) and 3.0.

In BCNC I have enlarged the traces of 0.1 in +0.7.
Intersect between traces of 0.7. Then I made a difference with the traces of 0.10. To the result perform pocket operation with 0.10

Between 0.7 and 3.0 the algorithm would have to be repeated (I have done it manually)

Perform a pocket operation on the dimensions of the board for bit 3.0, subtract the traces of 3.0 so that they do not enter it

Using PCB-Gcode in Fusion 360?

I'm trying to use PCB-Gcode in Fusion 360.

I have installed PCB-Gcode 3.6.2.4 it into the same directory as the rest of the ULPs.

The good news is that the "pcb-gcode-setup.ulp" works fine.

However, when I try to run the "pcb-gcode.ulp" program, I get the following error message in Fusion 360:

/Users/jim/Library/.../examples/ulps/examples/pcb-gcode.ulp(1387):

polygons loop is depreciated.  Use polyPours polyShapes polyCutouts instead.

Is there a way to fix this?

different depth for milling holes and circumference, respectively

Hi John,

another point I stumbeled over when milling my current board is this:

Milling the circumference of the board needs to be as deep as the boards material is thick, clear enough.
Now we come to holes.
The same approach is valid for holes when thinking of cutouts in the board, lets say holes for fastening the board to the housing.

But perhaps we need other holes, holes for aligning top and bottom side when dealing with two sided boards.
Those holes have to go through the board and into the bed to fasten the alignment poles.

At the moment I have to generate a special file for those aligning holes by deleting all other holes and milling pathes.

Do you have an idea how to deal with this easily?
Thanks!

Harald

corrections and addtions to pcb-gcode

Hi John,

seemingly you are on closing issues?

So perhaps you should have a short look at my homepage.

There I elaborate on the "always climb" option and a really easy addition to your code to change the cutting direction of ALL pathes to always cut against the feed direction to get clean edges on traces as well as on the copper patches left over.
My patch is always activated, no checkbox in the GUI to have it switched on or off.

Another addition explained there is the patch suggested by Alexander Arkusha to get "spot drill" and "drilling holes", respectively, working as expected.

Hope you see an advantage for your work.

Harry

When generating drill file, first drill OK. Remaing drills use "Spot Drill" depth?

Eagle Ver 9.6
PCB_GCODE ver 3.6.3
Repeatable: Yes.

Requesting drill only:

First hole is OK, subsequent holes use the "Spot Drill" depth. This is a snippet from drill file.

Workaround: Make the "Spot Drill" depth the same as "Drill Depth". And don't forget to return to correct value for "Spotting" while requesting Outlines.

Regards, M.

Mismatch between ULP and settings files versions - won't run

The settings files (particularly pcb-machine.h) have been updated with new parameters, but the actual ULP hasn't. Looks like there was a new version of pcb-gcode made 4 months ago, but only half uploaded here.

Symptom: after a fresh install of this, when you launch pcb-gcode-setup from Eagle, it fails with "Unknown Identifier 'DEFAULT_WIDTH'.

Nosing around it seems that DEFAULT_WIDTH is no longer in use - in older versions of pcb-gcode it was defined in pcb-machine.h, but that file doesn't have it.

The dates on the files in this current distro are a red flag - all the subfolders are new but the files in the root are ... really old.

Document links to online groups outdated, bump version number.

sporadically erratic sorting of etching pathes on double sided boards

Hi John,
this is not a real issue, since I cannot reproduce it... Or better, I can reproduce it, but only with a given, relatively complex, double sided design.
When I tried to reproduce the effect with a stripped down part of this very design, the effect doesn't appear.
So treat this only as a reminder to some strange happening from now and then.

I realized in the past and now again, that sometimes pcb-gcode behaves a little bit strange when etching the bottom side of double sided boards.
Normally the milling pathes (I will refer to the milling pathes as mtraces from now on) are sorted ascending from in to out, regarding the distance away from the signal trace.
As far as I realized it, when the "issue" occurs, it happens on the bottom layer of double sided boards.
The "issue" is, the first mtrace is along the outer circumference of the trench. That is NOT normal.
The second mtrace is the "normally first" mtrace around the signal trace.
The third mtrace is adjacent to the first mtrace.
The fourth mtrace is adjacent to the second mtrace.
...and so on, until the mtraces remove the last stripe of copper in the middle of the trench between signal trace and remaining copper-clad.

I posted a video of the above described action on vimeo.

The signal trace in the video is part of this design:

I tried to reproduce the effect by stripping the design down to only consist of the two signal traces on the top and bottom layer, respectively:

But to no avail. This "design" is etched as expected.
....
On writing this I have an idea...
Ok, a short test later...
When I add a ground plane to the bottom side of the board, the mtraces are executed as described above.

So I assume, the ground plane is treated as signal "trace" and so, as the outer rim of the isolating trench around the actual signal trace (the blue connection in the picture above) is nearer than the circumference of this blue signal trace, this outer rim is etched first.

All in all it's no bug, it's a feature and based on mathematics only :)
Having investigated and written on that , I leave it here for you to close...

Harald

Milling board outline with rounded corners

Hi John,

I tried to give rounded corners to my last design and used "miter" in Eagle to form the rounded corners.
The design looks exactly as expected in Eagle:

The board is double sided, the bottom layer is a GND plane with two 5 V wires.

Sadly, the milling doesn't perform as expected:

Look at those "ears" the milling process resulted in.
From the design I would have expected, that the rounding starts and ends in line with the adjacent straigth lines.

Is this a problem of pcb-gcode or does Eagle something strange?
Thanks!

[edit]
It seems, Eagle is including the rectangular corners in the "Dimension" layer into its calculations for the route...
Have I to miter the dimension outline as well?
Thanks!
[\edit]

Harald