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Electronics => PCB/EDA/CAD => Topic started by: VinzC on April 09, 2016, 08:55:18 am

Title: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: VinzC on April 09, 2016, 08:55:18 am
Hi all.

I'm (still) using gEDA on personal and professional ground and have my PCB fabricated by Eurocircuits.com (http://www.eurocircuits.com/). So far I like how I manage with both but I'd like to make Eurocircuit rules the default for gEDA. Currently Eurocircuits publishes rules for Altium (http://www.eurocircuits.com/Altium-Designer-templates-with-Eurocircuits-design-rules) or Eagle (http://www.eurocircuits.com/eagle-dru-files). Needless to say I have neither and I run GNU/Linux (Mint on my laptop and Gentoo at home, for the record).

So my question is: is there a way to import Altium or Eagle design rules into gEDA PCB?

(I'm also considering switching to Kicad but it is not on topic right now.)

Thanks in advance for any hint or suggestion.
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: ScribblesOnNapkins on April 12, 2016, 12:25:42 am
Look at the documentation on vendor file. It includes the design limits in the DRC area.

http://pcb.geda-project.org/pcb-cvs/pcb.html#Vendor-drill-mapping (http://pcb.geda-project.org/pcb-cvs/pcb.html#Vendor-drill-mapping)
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: VinzC on April 12, 2016, 05:06:49 pm
Quote from: ScribblesOnNapkins on April 12, 2016, 12:25:42 am
Look at the documentation on vendor file. It includes the design limits in the DRC area.

http://pcb.geda-project.org/pcb-cvs/pcb.html#Vendor-drill-mapping (http://pcb.geda-project.org/pcb-cvs/pcb.html#Vendor-drill-mapping)

Thanks a lot, ScribblesOnNapkins! Can't believe after how long I sought I never came across this article  ??? . That also answers my question with a "No but..." and given how little there is to do, "manually" is a perfectly valid option.
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: ScribblesOnNapkins on April 14, 2016, 01:50:02 am
If you have documentation for vendor files for the other packages that we can legally use to write a conversion utility then I will gladly work on it.
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: VinzC on April 18, 2016, 09:25:57 pm
Quote from: ScribblesOnNapkins on April 14, 2016, 01:50:02 am
If you have documentation for vendor files for the other packages that we can legally use to write a conversion utility then I will gladly work on it.

I'm not sure I follow you, do you have something specific in mind?
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: ScribblesOnNapkins on April 29, 2016, 03:14:06 am
Typically when we can find a way to automatically do something we write a utility to do it. Sadly to do that you need open documentation from the vendor about where in the configuration/project files the info we need is stored and how to decode it.
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: VinzC on May 01, 2016, 03:44:33 pm
Quote from: ScribblesOnNapkins on April 29, 2016, 03:14:06 am
Typically when we can find a way to automatically do something we write a utility to do it. Sadly to do that you need open documentation from the vendor about where in the configuration/project files the info we need is stored and how to decode it.
Ah, ok, get it now. I happen to do that, too, writing those things by hand in a repetitive manner gets somewhat boring indeed. Better have it handed to a script, that's true.
Title: Re: Can design rules from Altium or Eagle (Eurocircuits) be imported in gEDA pcb?
Post by: ScribblesOnNapkins on November 16, 2017, 03:14:34 am
Sorry for bumping an old thread but I forgot to mention this when it happened.

We (pcb-rnd) can import design rules from Eagle. We can't from Altium ( yet ;) )