DIY Layout Creator - software for easy drawing PCB, vero and perfboard layouts

[stumper1]

FYI -
I was running this on my old laptop w/Win ME.  The program ran fine - maybe a little unstable at times but it is an old computer.  When I went to print a PnP the quality was terrible.  I had printed the same thing from my other computer running XP and it was fine - however I do not have a laser printer hooked up to that computer.  I also noticed that things just didn't look "right" on the screen in ME or 98.  Pads were fuzzy and traces would vary in thickness depending on the angle. I've had XP for the laptop but was too lazy to load it as I've been considering just buying a new one anyway.  I loaded it up tonight and things look and print just fine now.  Not sure why there is a graphical issue with ME/98 but there appears to be one....

Back to work.  Thanks for the program/tool Bancika!

[stumper1]

Ooops. Spoke too soon.  Now I can't print PnP directly from the program - I have to render/resize in Photoshop first.  Any ideas?  Whenever I print for DIY Layout Creator iI just get a blank page

[choklitlove]

me too.

[bancika]

I'll have to check thet out, but the thing is I don't have a printer so it's done pretty blindfolded. To make it more complicated it worked for some of you (with bad quality though). 

[Samy]

bancika, i want to thank you for this wonderful software !

I don´t know if someone mention this before but, can you add the option for selecting several tracks to change the values of the selected ones and the option to change the default size ?
Just a sugestion, why not square solder pads for IC´s ?

I can print pnp but it´s not 1:1 and the tracks are not with the correct value, a mirror print will be also great not to mention the possibility to write on the copper side !

Thanks and sorry to flood you with this ...

[Gilles C]

I just tried printing a PNP directly from the program to an HP Laserjet (printing quality is set to 600x600 dot per inch) and it worked without any problem or change to do.

I just hit "Print PNP", that's all. So the program is working well. The size was also correct. It was 1:1, and the quality was good.

Oh, I'm using it on a Laptop running XP.

Added: I also printed it to a pdf file with the program pdf995, then printed it from the pdf file created, and the size was correct once again.

Gilles

[Samy]

Sorry, my mistake ! I was using an older version .
I thought that the version in the older posts where the same ...
I´ve printed and it´s all o.k. !

It´s my first day using this program but every time i use it, i like it even more ... It´s really a nice little tool !

[bancika]

alrighty then. When I tested I used some kind of PDF printer too, so I wasn't sure if it'll work ok with real printer.
Thanks for info.
When I catch some time I'll go through these suggestions once again and will do whatever possible. It will be soon.
And thanks for sending layouts, we have 25 of them at the moment. Currently top uploader is Dragonfly
Keep 'em coming guys

[RLBJR65]

I think you should move the Created by... and your link between the project name and credits or at least below the credits line. And change it to the same blue as the project name. Be proud of your hard work, that dingy gray at the bottom is barely visible!

How hard would it be to add a text field below the layout? The text strings work but any editing is limited to the small line that is in front of you. My spelling is not great so I usually write up build notes etc. with Word, spell check then copy and paste.

Thanks
Richard

[bancika]

Hmm..I don't quite understand second one 
As for first one, I didn't want to make it bother users too much. Since I plan to put pots in the game, many people will use precious space between board and credits to stick them there

[dano12]

Ive been using this over the last few days now. Fantastic work!

I don't know if it has been suggested before, but the single most important feature I would ask for:

Add a pointer option as the top option in the toolbox. When it is selected, I can click on any item on the perfboard and it selects it in the treeview.

That alone would save me hours of work (i.e. no more scrolling through the huge treeview to find a component to move or delete)

Thanks again for your super-cool software!

-dano

[bancika]

I'm brainstorming with myself on how to do it for a while I think I have an idea. Not an elegant solution, cause it will require ~2MB of RAM more, but I don't think it'll make much difference with modern PC's with 512MB or more

[dano12]

I'm brainstorming with myself on how to do it for a while I think I have an idea. Not an elegant solution, cause it will require ~2MB of RAM more, but I don't think it'll make much difference with modern PC's with 512MB or more

I'd imagine you already have an array of board objects in memory. Objects with properties? If each one has a unique index, you can use the click event on the object and do a lookup in the array to find its index, then highlight the appropriate treeview item. (I'm assuming a lot here

What is this written in?

[bancika]

Yes, I did it It works, and no much of slow down if I can determine. Right click on component on board selects it in explorer and popup menu jumps on place where you clicked so it can be renamed, deleted, modded 
anyway, dano. It's written in Delphi. Objects are kept in memory but only in text format (XML), like

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<Resistor Value="2.7K" X1="4" Y1="4" X2="4" Y2="1" Name="R2"/>[/size]
with only that information you can't determine what lies below cursor because each component has different shape. The idea is to make bitmap mask in memory. It's all black (0 color) and on every pixel that covers component I changed color to act as a pointer to component. So when you right click somewhere program checks color on mask bitmap and if it's not black it selects that component in explorer. Simple but working And it works with all components including traces, jumpers and text.
I'll upload new version this evening. Anyone has idea what to do with help menu. I'd like to free that space for explorer. What about floating menu in new window? Or on the bottom of window?
Cheers

[dano12]

Ok, I understand the architecture a bit better. Moving forward it may be problematic keeping your objects as XML strings. Much better idea would to be have a master object class the derived classes for each of the tools (components, pads, traces, etc.) Then you can hang properties off each and manipulate them without string parsing. Just a suggestion.

Have you done any programming in .NET? You are obviously good in Delphi, you'd be *great* in .NET

Looking forward to the new build.

[bancika]

Why, you can put whatever you like in XML 
All objects contain (and probably all future objects will contain) only data fields and not procedures. XML fields can accept any type of data (text, numbers, binary) so it will hold very well. Second reason is that project is represented same in the memory and in DIY file. As for organization it's preety much object-like. Different procedures do actual drawing and one HUGE Render() proedure calls them and assembles board. And I don't pare XML manually, there are components that do all the job automatically and it's very nice and easy. Like

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XML.AddNode, XML.Nodes[i].Attributes['Value'], etc.
It would be major pain in the ass to manually create and parse XML.

It's not 100% well organized but considering I work alone it's not bad

Btw, I don't like .NET

Update: I think it's enough work for today, here's link
http://storm-software.co.yu/diy/layouts/diy_layout.exe
check out right click selection on board, Ctrl+A in explorer selects all components, few minor changes

[Coriolis]

Would it be possible to get DIP 14 objects in there? Like a quad opamp (say, TL074) or a LM13700? I could put 2 DIP 8 on top of each other, but it would look confusing. If it's already there and I missed it, I am sorry. It's a great program!

C

[Gilles C]

You can use any number of pins for DIP components. You just decide yourself where you want the pin 1 and the other corner pin.

Gilles

[dano12]

Awesome! That one change alone is huge.

Thanks.

Why, you can put whatever you like in XML 
All objects contain (and probably all future objects will contain) only data fields and not procedures. XML fields can accept any type of data (text, numbers, binary) so it will hold very well. Second reason is that project is represented same in the memory and in DIY file. As for organization it's preety much object-like. Different procedures do actual drawing and one HUGE Render() proedure calls them and assembles board. And I don't pare XML manually, there are components that do all the job automatically and it's very nice and easy. Like

Code Select Expand

XML.AddNode, XML.Nodes[i].Attributes['Value'], etc.
It would be major pain in the ass to manually create and parse XML.

It's not 100% well organized but considering I work alone it's not bad

Btw, I don't like .NET

Update: I think it's enough work for today, here's link
http://storm-software.co.yu/diy/layouts/diy_layout.exe
check out right click selection on board, Ctrl+A in explorer selects all components, few minor changes

[Gilles C]

Humm... is right-clicking on components included in this last version? I don't see it working here.

The only differences I see are the full screen at start and all the component trees opened in the explorer.

Gilles