Select multiple polygons for paint (copper clear)

[Juan Pablo Caram]

There is no way to select multiple polygons at once to perform a paint (copper clear) operation at this time.

[Igor Martinovski]

It would be nice if this could be done in the CLI (i.e. no mouse interaction). That way you can generate g-code to from gerber without using the gui.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

Yes, all functionality should and will be available through the shell.

[Roman Kelhar]

I love idea!

[Juan Pablo Caram]

Commit 7474609 has support for selecting and painting all the polygons in a Geometry Object. Please give it a try.

I will probably make the "paint" feature part of the geometry editor, so one can select any specific set of polygons. In addition I will probably make the geometry editor something that is permanently active when a Geometry Object is active, not something that you have to turn on or off. Sounds good?

[Igor Martinovski]

Haven't had much time to test this, the paint area is taking a really long time (its been running for about an hour). I must be doing something wrong.

[Roman Kelhar]

I really would like to do a test but I have a problem :( ....how to get/upgrade flatcam with this version or how to get files that i will be able to prepacked them in repository? I'm doing this for first time and I'm a little short in that.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

@igor_martinovski your tool diameter is 0.005. Depending on the size of the polygons, that can result in an insane amount of data! That's why it's not finishing.

@TvojMuc you can start looking at the installation section in the manual. It's good to learn this if you want to be testing the latest features!

[Igor Martinovski]

Thanks JP,

I am using a laser engraver to make the PCB so I will have to play around with the numbers but I expect the diameter to be 5-10 mils.

Creating large isolation routing seems to work well however it also creates paths around the board which is undesirable.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

@igor_martinovski if it is slow in FlatCAM it will take infinitely long to actually do the engraving! If you tried to paint a 1sq. inch are, you would have to draw about 200 lines.

What do you mean by "it also creates paths around the board"? And why is it undesirable? Check out the interiors shell command.

[Roman Kelhar]

I'm also using for laser engraving or better for drawing on film and using tool dia 0.05 in existing FlatCAM 8.5. Yes it’s take a time but is perfectly well done. I found out possibility to use no-copper region and now I'm able to do solder mask as well. Blue film is work prfectly with 100mils as weel and green will be tested till end of this week I hope :)

[Igor Martinovski]

Hi JP

Here is the result of using isolation routing to clear large sections of copper (similar end result to painting). This executes very fast and creates efficient paths, however notice that the border of the PCB now has 0.5" of milling around it. I have been unable to find a way to remove it. (however this is out of the scope of this issue.)

Getting back on track, I noticed that when attempting to pain the same pcb:

• I select the copper and create a non-copper geometry
• Select the non-copper geometry and Paint Area with tool diameter 0.05" and overlap 0.15
• Select Method "Standard"
• Select "All"

When I start the paint generation the terminal shows the following:

Note that the FlatCAM application shows "Polygon Paint Started"

I am unsure if this is a bug or if my setup is the issue.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

@igor_martinovski the first issue is expected. You are telling FlatCAM to draw isolation routing around all the Gerber polygons it finds, with 100 passes, each with a width of 0.005, therefore a total width of 0.5 inches. This is a usage problem: You have your ground plane defined in your Gerber, which is another polygon which FlatCAM will try to isolate. When making PCBs with isolation routing, the ground plane is a byproduct and does not have to be explicitly specified in the Gerber. Just remove the ground plane or copper fill from the Gerber!

The second might be a bug and I need to check further. Thanks.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

I was able to confirm:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/jpcaram/flatcam/FlatCAMWorker.py", line 59, in do_worker_task
    raise e
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'coords'

[Juan Pablo Caram]

"Select all" should be working now since commit 8afb070. Please try it.

[Juan Pablo Caram]

Solved in 38c4474.

[Roman Kelhar]

I could confirm that is realy working fine. I also would suggest or ask question: In the Print area where you add “All” would be possible to add For Method “line selection ” and you will paint area from top to button and from right to left for all selected (in my case) non coppers areas, This would be for using with laser and stop film.