DEX eval by free_electron

[Iliya]

They are nodes aka linear circuit analysis.
Nets are on PCBs.
Altium et. al. does not use nodes. Nodes cannot have dangling connections.

Oh, well in that case, I suppose the ungodly massive pile of wire pasta is A-OK.

The circuit will work. No dangling wires. Just move them. Easy. hold down mouse over wire segment and drag. 

[Iliya]

I started a few releases ago, and after free_electron's assessment about the auto-wiring, I decided to give it a go. I had the same issue as him and could not disable the auto-wiring. Unchecking this option from either the add wire or bus ribbon menu did not work. I then found a post in this thread that mentioned an overall settings menu at the top of the window. I then found the button "View/Hide Settings Panel" and found the auto wire settings under the tabs "All Schematics" and "Schematic". Disabling it in both tabs was not effective, even after restarting the program. 

It then occurred to me to create a brand new schematic - the settings finally took place. Perhaps the settings were tied to the previous schematic file, but I can't be certain.

After all that, I wanted to draw a simple astable oscillator, and unfortunately could not draw the nicely angled wires as it is typical of this circuit configuration (e.g. shown at this link). Therefore, a question to Iliya: how can this be done?

Similar thing for parts: how to rotate them at 45° angles? This would be useful for the full wave bridge rectifier circuits.

By the way, despite the glitches, congratulations to you on the massive undertaking to make the software work so well.

See attached.

See attached for angled wires.
Yes you can save designs to the library and drag them onto others.

[CatalinaWOW]

Here is a project from a couple of years ago.  This would fit easily in the free Eagle, but I have quickly bounced off the free Eagle limit on other projects.

I am still having problems with the forum interface, so will not retype the more lengthy comment on this that disappeared when I last tried to post. 


From my point of view the two biggest problems in Autotrax are the manual and simulation.  I don't often find the manual necessary with the UI, but when I want something it is seldom there or useful.  This is one area where the one man show would benefit from a second set of eyes.  The simulation works for simple circuits consisting of R, C, L diodes and transistors.  (But requires some head scratching with little support from the manual).   But as far as I have been able to tell, you can't input a custom model.  Appears to be one of those functions not implemented yet.  So op-amps, comparators and all the more complex things are out of reach.

[tautech]

Here is a project from a couple of years ago.  This would fit easily in the free Eagle, but I have quickly bounced off the free Eagle limit on other projects.

Nice to see somebodies project. 

But did you intend only to have traces with 90 degree bends? 

I am still having problems with the forum interface, so will not retype the more lengthy comment on this that disappeared when I last tried to post. 

You probably got a "no data received" or similar.
Use your browser "back" to see your reply and re-post.

[Wytnucls]

Update on the schematics with manual wire placement and meatballs off:

[Wytnucls]

3D transparent view with manual component placement and auto-routing:

[CatalinaWOW]

Here is a project from a couple of years ago.  This would fit easily in the free Eagle, but I have quickly bounced off the free Eagle limit on other projects.

Nice to see somebodies project. 

But did you intend only to have traces with 90 degree bends? 

I am still having problems with the forum interface, so will not retype the more lengthy comment on this that disappeared when I last tried to post. 

You probably got a "no data received" or similar.
Use your browser "back" to see your reply and re-post.

This project shows a number of things, including my own limited skills in PWB layout.  My only professional experience in this area involved Rubylith.  (Many on this forum will have to Google to figure that out).  On the schematic, the non-90 degree traces are artifacts of moving symbols on the schematic.  Could have cleaned it up with a couple of mouse clicks, but it is topologically correct and I just didn't bother.  The PWB layout used purely 90 degree bends.  My choice.  While there are benefits to other corner geometries, they don't really apply to my situation.  Frequencies involved in this circuit are very low, line geometries are not pressing and production quantities are tiny so I didn't bother.  There are settings that facilitate 45 degree step corners, but I am not aware of an easy way to generate arc segment corners.  May be there, but I haven't really looked, and definitely have not come across it.

[Wytnucls]

Auto routing with Electra:

[Mechatrommer]

now support dept is getting better and better thumbs up... i went this far see attached (still issue with autowiring and autorouting stuff, that i deal later), now how do i create gerber? no button no nothing...

[Wytnucls]

Looks like you're into Gerber preview. Go back to PCB tools to generate Gerber files.

[Mechatrommer]

thanks Wytnucls sure that button is hard to find ...

Auto routing with Electra:

the real trick is not the auto-routing stuff, the real trick is steps in getting tracks as nicely beautiful as our heart content, not dex heart content. i'm trying videoing what i mean, first with autowiring stuffs but uploading it to youtube proved to be a real challenge from my region and package here. i'll pick it up in slow pace later hopefully...

[Wytnucls]

First attempt at manual routing. Not terribly pretty, but no errors on design rules. 
(Note to self: Need to press spacebar to move a trace to the bottom layer)

[mswhin63]

This project shows a number of things, including my own limited skills in PWB layout.  My only professional experience in this area involved Rubylith. 

Curious what Rubylith has to do with Electronics other than covering Laptop screen for night vision. I use heaps of the stuff. Do you have any other application? 

[ivan747]

Of course it will be different if you contacted a larger SW company because they will often have several layers of insulation between you and the developers. So they will employ reps who are trained to deal with customers.

This is why people get used to insulting company staff to get what they want. I bet ya, if you talk to a store owner like some people talk to Walmart/Radioshack/whatever reps, they would be kicked out of the store, in some cases, literally.

[elgonzo]

Curious what Rubylith has to do with Electronics other than covering Laptop screen for night vision. I use heaps of the stuff. Do you have any other application? 

Creating masks for PCB and chip designs in ye' olde times. Ask your parents

[nctnico]

First attempt at manual routing. Not terribly pretty, but no errors on design rules. 
(Need to press spacebar to move a trace to the bottom layer)

Is there some way to force 45 angle increments only? Can DEX make traces with nice bends (parts of a circle)?

[Iliya]

Curious what Rubylith has to do with Electronics other than covering Laptop screen for night vision. I use heaps of the stuff. Do you have any other application? 

Creating masks for PCB and chip designs in ye' olde times. Ask your parents

My first job out of university was in the R&D department at Ferranti in Manchester, England. We used Rubylith for IC mask creation. Created really large Rubyliths of single chip. Photo-reduced to small mask. Then step & repeated to make final 1:1 mask.
Among many chips one was a 16 bit bipolar microprocessor F100. Very fast compared to 8080 at the time. Used for military.

http://www.cpu-world.com/CPUs/F100-L/index.html

[Iliya]

First attempt at manual routing. Not terribly pretty, but no errors on design rules. 
(Need to press spacebar to move a trace to the bottom layer)

Is there some way to force 45 angle increments only? Can DEX make traces with nice bends (parts of a circle)?

http:/kov.com/Videos/PCBs
Yes. More than one.

There are 29 videos.

See 3 Manual Routing styles.

I’m sure the others will be useful.
   Real-time DRC
   Track Necking/Changing Track Width When Routing

[Wytnucls]

...and a prettier version a 45 degrees (mostly):

[Mechatrommer]

...and a prettier version a 45 degrees (mostly):

whats not shown in the picture is the effort needed to avoid the "nearly spaghetty mess" as in ye 1st version. getting new traces in 45deg is easier (using ortho? or angled? trace routing button), but not so when try to re-route/edit the 45deg segment diagonally.or maybe i havent found a way yet..

[Wytnucls]

It was a trace routing 45 degree modification done on the first attempt PCB (Trial and error method mostly with 'track move'). Haven't tried a 45 degree routing from scratch yet. Starting to get the hang of it, but it still seems to have a mind of its own. Like riding a wild bronco!
Note: 45 degree only works in free tracks, apparently.

[Iliya]

I just had to have a go.

Not sure the design is OK.

Will do a video tomorrow on how I did it.

Project at:
http://kov.com/DownloadFiles/demo.zip

[Wytnucls]

Yours looks like an alien, I like mine better

[Iliya]

Here's the library symbol I created and dragged onto the schematic.

I wanted form to follow function.

The leds were important so placed first green led.
Set value to empty
Moved reference
Copy and pasted DS1 to get DS2
Positioned DS2
Drag selected DS1 and DS2
Copy and paste to get DS3 and DS4
Drag selected DS1-DS4
Copy and pasted DS1-DS4 to get DS5 and DS8
Drag and place yellow led
Drag and place red led

Dragged LM3914 onto schematic
Selected it.
Used the Part Builder panel to organize pin by name and group
Mirrored it.
Used sub-pick to resize symbol border.
Cancelled sub-pick.
Moved terminals around by dragging.

Added resistors, battery and connector
Added Vcc and Gnd

Connected up terminals.

Added Input text
drag selected Input text and JI
Right click and select group. This places Input text inside J1

Set page scale to 0.7
Centered schematic

went to PCB
Dragged LEDs into place
Locked LEDs.
Placed LM3914 Rotated it.
Dragged resistors into place
Set border to auto-generate drill holes - 0.1" diameter
Sized border
Placed battery connector and J1
Auto-routed
Gave myself a pat on the back. 

Now I'm off to Cancun...
Kept Meatball router on all the time. Ummm

[Mechatrommer]

yeah give him free license and use his circuit, real battery looks funny