EEVblog Electronics Community Forum
Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => Eagle => Topic started by: ptricks on August 14, 2017, 12:42:44 pm
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I didn't expect to see this in the update, current update from August 8th has a ton of features added.
They added full sheet metal support and integrating of Eagle designs.
Full details are here: https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/august-8-update-whats-new/ (https://www.autodesk.com/products/fusion-360/blog/august-8-update-whats-new/)
You can now import your pcb from eagle , make changes in fusion , and push the design back to eagle to update changes.
This is really great for people that are designing a pcb to fit inside another object and don't want to just use a box like case for the board.
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This is really great for people that are designing a pcb to fit inside another object and don't want to just use a box like case for the board.
If you are doing things like this, then Altium or some other professional tool is not all that expensive.
Eagle has a long way to go, and they are going in the wrong direction, IMO.
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You can now import your pcb from eagle , make changes in fusion , and push the design back to eagle to update changes.
This is really great for people that are designing a pcb to fit inside another object and don't want to just use a box like case for the board.
No, it isn't great. They should use a vendor neutral format for import and export of mechanical design.
What if you want to use another mechanical CAD software...
They should have fixed the broken IDF export instead.
And still no ODB++ export...
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Sam Sattel recently posted an article sneering at all the attempts for common CAD exchange standards, and wraps it up by saying Autodesk wants to abandon support any sort of open exchange formats at all because it's too hard: https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/complete-history-failed-ecad-mcad-exchange-file-formats/ (https://www.autodesk.com/products/eagle/blog/complete-history-failed-ecad-mcad-exchange-file-formats/)
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Autodesk wants to abandon support any sort of open exchange formats at all because it's too hard
It would be fine if they did not come up with proprietary formats without any documentation. They work in the industry, so they are in a good position do judge what's good and what's bad. But without strong commitment to openness, we will end up with another DWG, and everyone will be worse for it.
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Hi Guys,
Just wanted to clarify IDF export is still possible in EAGLE and will continue to be. It's just not the best option(in regards to integration and ease of use) anymore. Like Sam mentions in that article those formats are very old. EAGLE's IDF export is mature enough to be used with other MCAD tools if that's what you want to do. We actually have several users that use the IDF format to bring designs into Inventor.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Jorge Garcia
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Just wanted to clarify IDF export is still possible in EAGLE and will continue to be.
The IDF export in Eagle is a disgrace, and you know it, Jorge:
https://www.element14.com/community/thread/43949/l/idf-export-broken?displayFullThread=true (https://www.element14.com/community/thread/43949/l/idf-export-broken?displayFullThread=true)
Regarding the generate-3d-idf-data.ulp:
1. It's not obvious to users how to create layers with numbers below 100.
2. The ulp wrote the wrong package names to the IDF files.
3. Filename extensions are wrong, they should be *.emn and *.emp.
4. The dialog of the ulp allows you to select a directory where to store the exported files.
It's broken.
Regarding the eagleidfexporter.ulp:
I'm sorry to tell you this but it's a disaster. The IDF conversion works but the dimensions are all wrong.
I'm not talking about the height (Z), I know that you have to add an attribute that contains the height value
otherwise it will defaults to 1 mm. I'm talking about the xy coordinates, they are all to big.
There is no way the ULP can use the correct dimensions drawn in a separate layer. Right?
It's just not the best option(in regards to integration and ease of use) anymore.
Yes it is, if you fix the broken ulp's.
But I guess autodesk prefers to do everyting online via autodesktools instead of using
a standardized way.
Like Sam mentions in that article those formats are very old.
Old != bad.
EAGLE's IDF export is mature enough to be used with other MCAD tools if that's what you want to do.
Nope, they are broken. Try for yourself and then come back here.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards,
Jorge Garcia
Let me know if there's something else I can do for you.
Best Regards,
Karel
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Hi Karel,
I hope you're having a good day. All of the issues you presented were addressed in the generate-3d-idf-data.ulp, we are shipping with V2.3 of that ULP that contains fixes for everything you mentioned on that thread so I'm not sure what's going on. I made those fixes when you reported those issues.
Have you been able to use version 2.3 of the generate-idf-data.ulp? If any of those 4 points are still valid please let me know and I will be happy to check the ULP out again and make any corrections I might have missed.
You are correct, that Old != Bad, I don't think I implied that in my post. Old == Old and technology advances and progresses that was all I was trying to say with that.
Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you, I'm sorry about the delay in seeing this, for some reason I'm not getting messages when someone replies to one of my posts.
Best Regards,
Jorge Garcia
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All of the issues you presented were addressed in the generate-3d-idf-data.ulp, we are shipping with V2.3 of that ULP that contains fixes for everything you mentioned on that thread so I'm not sure what's going on.
Dear Jorge,
I didn't know there's a newer version of that ulp because at ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/ulp/ (ftp://ftp.cadsoft.de/eagle/userfiles/ulp/) the version is still 2.0.
So, I downloaded Eagle V8 and inside the tar.gz I found that ulp with version 2.3. I'll try it when I have time.
So, the question now is, why doesn't autodesk update the ulp's on their ftp site so that also V7 and V6 users can check if there are newer versions?
Let me know if there's something else I can do for you.
Best Regards,
Karel
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Hi Karel,
As far as I know, any servers with the names cadsoft in them are no longer actively maintained. It's mostly kept online so that users can still download old versions of EAGLE. I didn't realize that was still up. I'll pass a note to one of the german devs to see if they can update the ULP there. Autodesk has plans to revamp(before anyone cries foul, it's to make these tools more obvious to users in general, so that everyone can benefit from them and not just the users who know where the old ftp servers are ;) ) our content system so all of the libraries, ulps, scripts and other content that users have contributed over the years are easier to access.
Thanks for bringing the oversight to my attention, I'll talk to the devs so that this can be corrected in the meantime.
Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.
Best Regards,
Jorge Garcia