Corner Markers - fixed for next version

Issue #535 new
Steve Lilley created an issue

Hi Marius,

There are a couple of little issues in the Corner Marker Plugin…

  1. You guess it, the Source Object Combo Box. - jumps to the last file when adding markers.
  2. The Drills and Checks Excellon Objects are not on center - If the Margin is set to 5mm, they are 5mm to the far edge of circles and not on center of the circles.

Suggestions

I use a laser for creating the traces and the corner makers on the PCB and corner markers on the solder mask to register with the PCB corner markers… but a round about way of doing it. On the Corner Marker Plugin the corner markers are only unique to that individual file, there is no general reference to place the corner markers in the same place on other files.

  1. Add a “Reference” like you have in the Penalization Plugin.
  2. Be able to add Corner Markers to both Gerber and Geometry files.
  3. Change the Margins so Corner Markers and Excellon Objects can be placed in either “x,y or linked”

Not asking for to much… am I? 🙂

Steve

Comments (27)

  1. Marius Stanciu

    Hi Steve,

    I think that all is fixed in the latest commit (in my repository 8.995 branch). Make sure you always work on the original Source object (Gerber file).

    Best regards,
    Marius

    PS: regarding of your suggestions, I’ll see what can be done…

  2. Marius Stanciu

    Hi Steve,
    Regarding your feature request I started to add it but not exactly as suggested. The new feature is available only in Advanced mode and for now only the sending the markers into other Gerber objects is working.

  3. Marius Stanciu

    So, the new feature is done. After adding a set of markers to a Gerber file then those markers could be inserted in exactly the same position ( (x, y) coordinates) in other Application objects (Geometry or Gerber objects). If there are no markers added then this feature remain disabled until such a moment when the markers are added.

  4. Steve Lilley reporter

    Looks nice, that will be a helpful feature. But I still believe you need the have the option of (x, y) margins separate as well as linked. If you are cutting a 90 x 90mm PCB out of a 100 x 150mm blank, you can not place the drill holes/markers in equal direction. You would not have room on blank PCB on the y axis. You could only expand out on the x axis.

    Another idea I had would be to locate the drill holes/markers from the center of the object - If you had a 100 x 150mm blank PCB and wanted the drill holes to be 8mm from the four corners, then you could set the x, y coordinates to 42 x 67mm. That way if you where to make several PCBs all cut out of the same size blank, you would only need to drill the locating holes on the router/laser spoilboard once and use the same 42 x 67mm coordinates on all the PCBs.

  5. Marius Stanciu

    Hi Steve,

    You will need to explain your process better because I don’t understand what you are trying to say. It may be a language barrier but I don’t understand what you are suggesting. Using the Manual mode you could place the markers in any position you need.

    What X, Y margins? Are you trying to say that instead of one Margin parameter you need a Margin X and a Margin Y parameter that could be (or not) linked (sort of like for the Grid Snap)?

  6. Steve Lilley reporter

    On the X, Y margins: (sort of like for the Grid Snap) or the Transform Tool in the Edit Menu, or any way to make Margin X and Margin Y separate parameter.

    Yep, it’s a little difficult to explain… maybe I need drawings.

    The process of locating the holes/markers from the center of the object - Instead of interring a distance in the Margin (distance from edge of the object to the hole or Marker). Which the distance between the holes would be different on every project and every project would require its own set of PCB Alignment holes. You could enter the X and Y distance from the Center of the Object (no margins), Using the same X, Y distance in other projects, this distance between the holes would always be the same regardless of different size PCBs you are cutting out on the router . Therefor you would only need to drill the PCB Alignment holes once and use them in other projects.

    When using a laser - the same PCB Alignment holes are drilled/cut in both the router spoilboard and the laser spoilboard. Doing several different projects using the same size blank PCB, I only have to set the router and laser up once for all the projects and not a new setup for each project with different Alignment holes. I already do this just in a roundabout way. I thought this way would be simpler and make it easier for other people.

  7. Marius Stanciu

    Ok, added this feature too in Markers Plugin. Now the Margin parameter can be set on X and Y axis and by default those are linked together with the help of a QToolButton.

    LE: Regarding of setting the markers not relative to the edge but to the center of the board, maybe I will add a radio button named Reference with values: Edge, Center and the margin will be referenced to that.

  8. Steve Lilley reporter

    btw: On your 2Sided Plugin, you added “clicking LMB and also pressing CTRL+Shift will add the click coordinate“. I only know this because I read your notes, but it is not in the PCB Alignment info box. I had also entered in the two coordinates and then closed it. When I opened the 2Sided Plugin and clicked on a Coordinate again, everything that was in the clipboard + the new coordinate was entered in the box. I don’t know what all the clipboard is used for or how it is cleared… just thought I would let you know.

  9. Marius Stanciu

    I had also entered in the two coordinates and then closed it. When I opened the 2Sided Plugin and clicked on a Coordinate again, everything that was in the clipboard + the new coordinate was entered in the box.

    The problem is that I don’t know what to do. I could clear the clipboard on launching of the 2Sided Plugin. But what if someone wants to carry something in the clipboard and paste inside 2Sided Plugin? Imagine the swears… 🙂
    The same, I could clear the clipboard on closing the 2Sided plugin but what if they want to carry some coordinates elsewhere…. Ctrl+C / Ctrl+V sequence stays also in the clipboard. Right now the clipboard is cleared after the Alignment Drills are generated.
    Do you have any suggestion on how to deal with that?

  10. Steve Lilley reporter

    I suppose, if anything is in the clipboard on the first Drill Coordinate click, then clip_text = ' '.

    or: on_mouse_click_release, if drill_values == ' '; then clip_text = ' '.

  11. Marius Stanciu

    The work on the feature you’ve requested in the Markers Plugin should be finished now. I’ve removed the Margin parameter and now it is replaced by a more complex Offset which have a reference.

  12. Steve Lilley reporter

    On the Markers Plugin - When I set the Offset Radio Button to Center, the markers are not positioned it the right place. If I set both x, y to 10mm then x is placed about -8mm from the edge and y about 9mm from the edge.

    The Markers Plugin UI looks really nice.

    Thanks, Steve

  13. Steve Lilley reporter

    Corner Marker Plugin - After inserting markers into a Geometry file… Under the Project Tab, I clicked “Disable Plot” on that Geo file I just added the markers to and a Critical Error box popped up.

    2021-10-11 12:54:22.278626

    Traceback (most recent call last):

    File "C:\FlatCam_beta\app_Main.py", line 8687, in on_disable_sel_plots

    self.disable_plots(objects=object_list)

    File "C:\FlatCam_beta\app_Main.py", line 8749, in disable_plots

    obj.ui.plot_cb.stateChanged.disconnect(obj.on_plot_cb_click)

    TypeError: 'method' object is not connected

  14. Steve Lilley reporter

    Also, when creating a new file with the markers, the name “corners” is added to the file name, I guess that should now be changed to read “markers” instead of “corners”.

  15. Steve Lilley reporter

    Hi Marius,

    How was Ireland, I always wanted to go there… maybe some day.

    Got a couple of anomalies…

    1. This one took awhile to narrow down. - In the Marker Plugin, when Inserting Markers into a Geometry file. The new Geo file it creates with the markers will only include up to 8 solid_geometry. In other words - If the Geo file you are inserting the markers in has 20 solid_geometry, the file that is created with the makers will only have up to 8… the rest of the geometries are not copied into the new Geo file. I don’t know why 8… probably something simple.
    2. In the Gerber Editor - the Poligonize function does not draw. That’s an easy one.🙂

    Steve

  16. Marius Stanciu

    Hi Steve,

    The trip in Ireland was one of a kind. Never before I had so many near-accident situations (the leprechaun acted 🙂 ), fortunately the professional part was unaffected.

    Regarding the issues:
    1. I will need more info regarding on how to reproduce this. I tried to see this issue but could not. So you need to show me how to get this result.
    2. The Poligonize function from the Gerber Editor does only a kind of fusion of geometric elements from many into one big one (if they touch/overlap) but only if they belong to the same aperture.. So yes, it does not draw, it only transform/alter existing geometric elements.

    BTW, looking again at the Marker Plugin I detected a issue and fixed it and also added (for manual mode) some utility geometry when adding manual markers.

    Best regards,
    Marius

  17. Steve Lilley reporter

    Marius,

    See attached file.

    I have created two Geo files, the first one is an iso with 4 passes (copper_bottom.gbr_iso_combined) and the second is made up of 3 Gerber files (profile, soldermask_top, and copper_top) joined together as a Geo file (Combo_SingleGeo). The other two Geo files were created by only adding the markers (*_markers). By comparing the two copper_bottom files or Combo_SingleGeo files you can see that some of the geometry is missing in the *_marker files. In the Object Report, the copper_bottom has 21 solid_geometry, Combo_SingleGeo has 17 solid_geometry, but the two *_marker files only have 8 solid geometry.

    These were created by taking any Geo file with more than 8 solid_geometry by using the Insert Markers tool and selecting that Geo file then Insert the Markers.

    On the Gerber Editor, I had the two functions mixed up - It was the Add Regine button I was thinking of that draws the polygon and not the Poligonize button. My bad ☹ No wonder it didn’t work…

    Steve

  18. Marius Stanciu

    Hi Steve,
    The issue with inserting markers in an external Geometry object is fixed in the latest commit, in my repo.
    - Marius

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