DipTrace 4.1 beta

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Serg
Technical Support
Posts: 519
Joined: 09 Jun 2010, 01:12

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#31 Post by Serg » 19 Jan 2021, 11:29

dominicc wrote: 17 Jan 2021, 11:00 I am not able to use the IPC-7351 pattern generator to generate a pad layout with the pad numbers in the correct order for the MEMS sensors made by Bosch/ST/TDK (Invensense).
In generator you need to swap D and E dimensions.
Dimension "E" from datasheet = Dimension "D" in generator.
This is because in datasheet pin 1 is located by E side.
PQFN_2.png
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PQFN_3.png
PQFN_3.png (41.6 KiB) Viewed 7591 times
PQFN.png
PQFN.png (90.45 KiB) Viewed 7591 times

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KevinA
Posts: 639
Joined: 18 Dec 2015, 08:35

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#32 Post by KevinA » 19 Jan 2021, 17:14

Tomg wrote: 19 Jan 2021, 08:16 b4.1 (v4.0.9.1) Route Net bug

1) Connect a ratline from C1(2) to C2(1).
2) Complete a trace from C1(2) only half way to C2(1) by terminating it with the [Enter] key.
3) Right-click on C1(2), select "Route Net" in the context menu and observe what appears to become one completed trace connecting C1(2) to C2(1).
4) Drag the left half of the trace upward and the right half of the trace downward. Observe one connected path and one disconnected path.
rn1.png
This problem does not exist in v4.0.0.5.
Did you run DRC on this before pulling it apart?

Tomg
Expert
Posts: 2028
Joined: 20 Jun 2015, 07:39

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#33 Post by Tomg » 20 Jan 2021, 01:39

KevinA wrote: "Did you run DRC on this before pulling it apart?"
Yes. The DRC and the Net Connectivity Check both pass.
Tom

Dave8266
Posts: 49
Joined: 20 Mar 2020, 16:57

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#34 Post by Dave8266 » 20 Jan 2021, 09:51

Apologies for the request, but could someone verify if these bugs from 4.0.0.5 (Mac version) still exist, or have been fixed, in the 4.1 beta?
(I'd check myself, but I'm in a production environment and can't change software right now...)

1)The DipTrace Launcher has a minimize button, but the window can't actually be minimized (it adds a new item in the dock, like it tried to minimize, but the Launcher window remains present.)
2) The Schematic and PCB Layout tools will either crash or show a blank layout (with no error message) if attempting to open a file with too long of a filename.
3) In Schematic Capture, in the Edit Text dialog with left-aligned text, spaces are not displayed in the edit window until after the first non-space character is typed. (For example, if you go to a new line, and type five spaces, the cursor remains blinking all the way at the far left edge.)
4) If using a component which does not contain any electrical pads, in the PCB Layout tool the patterns for these components will be duplicated (with identical refdes) any time "Renew Layout from Schematic" is run. Multiple "renewals" = more duplicate footprints.
5) On the Mac, the names of the software tools get mangled when launched. For example, "Schematic Capture" gets truncated to "Schemati" in the toolbar, but appears as the ambiguous "DipTrace 4.0.0.5358601041Wine-Preloader" in the dock and elsewhere. All four tools (Schematic Capture, PCB Layout, Component Editor, and Pattern Editor) get that same ambiguous title, which makes it difficult to know which is which in Activity Monitor.
6) All DipTrace windows disappear entirely in Mission Control, so you can't use Mission Control to switch between DipTrace and other applications, or between separate DipTrace windows.

Thanks!

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3897
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#35 Post by Alex » 21 Jan 2021, 03:29

Dave8266 wrote: 20 Jan 2021, 09:51 Apologies for the request, but could someone verify if these bugs from 4.0.0.5 (Mac version) still exist, or have been fixed, in the 4.1 beta?
(I'd check myself, but I'm in a production environment and can't change software right now...)

1)The DipTrace Launcher has a minimize button, but the window can't actually be minimized (it adds a new item in the dock, like it tried to minimize, but the Launcher window remains present.)
2) The Schematic and PCB Layout tools will either crash or show a blank layout (with no error message) if attempting to open a file with too long of a filename.
3) In Schematic Capture, in the Edit Text dialog with left-aligned text, spaces are not displayed in the edit window until after the first non-space character is typed. (For example, if you go to a new line, and type five spaces, the cursor remains blinking all the way at the far left edge.)
4) If using a component which does not contain any electrical pads, in the PCB Layout tool the patterns for these components will be duplicated (with identical refdes) any time "Renew Layout from Schematic" is run. Multiple "renewals" = more duplicate footprints.
5) On the Mac, the names of the software tools get mangled when launched. For example, "Schematic Capture" gets truncated to "Schemati" in the toolbar, but appears as the ambiguous "DipTrace 4.0.0.5358601041Wine-Preloader" in the dock and elsewhere. All four tools (Schematic Capture, PCB Layout, Component Editor, and Pattern Editor) get that same ambiguous title, which makes it difficult to know which is which in Activity Monitor.
6) All DipTrace windows disappear entirely in Mission Control, so you can't use Mission Control to switch between DipTrace and other applications, or between separate DipTrace windows.

Thanks!
Thank you for the report.
1) We confirm issue #1 and will either fix it or disable minimize button.
2) Max length of file name and path should not exceed 256 symbols.
3) We confirm issue #3 and will try to find a solution.
4) We will verify it.
5, 6) These are peculiarities of emulation Windows environment on Mac. We will try something to do with it in the next release.

Dave8266
Posts: 49
Joined: 20 Mar 2020, 16:57

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#36 Post by Dave8266 » 21 Jan 2021, 06:49

Thanks Alex.

On the max path issue, is there any way DipTrace can recognize this error at runtime, and handle it gracefully?
As I mentioned, sometimes I would get full crashes, which is obviously not good, and sometimes it would just show a blank workspace with no error. In either case, I was unable to open my projects, with no real clue what had went wrong, until I experimentally figured it out.

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3897
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#37 Post by Alex » 22 Jan 2021, 03:20

Dave8266 wrote: 21 Jan 2021, 06:49 Thanks Alex.

On the max path issue, is there any way DipTrace can recognize this error at runtime, and handle it gracefully?
As I mentioned, sometimes I would get full crashes, which is obviously not good, and sometimes it would just show a blank workspace with no error. In either case, I was unable to open my projects, with no real clue what had went wrong, until I experimentally figured it out.
Mac version uses Wine and we depend on how it handles long names.
We can't reproduce #4 issue from your list. Could you please send schematic and pcb files and we will renew the layout from schematic to see the problem.

novarm44
DipTrace Lead Developer
Posts: 466
Joined: 08 Jun 2010, 23:24
Contact:

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#38 Post by novarm44 » 22 Jan 2021, 07:28

0xdeadbeef wrote: 18 Jan 2021, 08:55 So, still no push & shove? *Sigh*
We understand this is the major flaw of DipTrace at the moment, and it is not easy to implement.
Back in 2018 I've spend 6 months trying to develop that. First method was completely unsuccessful, the second one - I've got correct pushing of trace and t-connection in different situations, but also discovered the method should be corrected to get proper result. Then new version and new IPC-7351 libraries were necessary, so I've stopped with push&shove experiments, documented all ideas, and returned to development of other features to release 3.3 and then 4.0.
4.1 is actually polishing of 4.0 based on customer requests, then I plan to return to push&shove development. I'm not only the programmer here, but DipTrace core and related complex algorithms are mainly my tasks.

Dave8266
Posts: 49
Joined: 20 Mar 2020, 16:57

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#39 Post by Dave8266 » 22 Jan 2021, 13:24

Alex wrote: 22 Jan 2021, 03:20 We can't reproduce #4 issue from your list. Could you please send schematic and pcb files and we will renew the layout from schematic to see the problem.

Sure thing - Which email address should I send the files to?

Here is a simplified example if it helps.
I made a user pattern and component, which is nothing but a mounting hole, and then placed two of them in a schematic. So there is nothing electrical about U9 or U11, no pads, connections, etc.

Schematic.png
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Then in the PCB layout, it's just a board shape, some text, and those two mounting hole components, U9 and U11.

PCB-1.png
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... but when you renew the layout from the schematic, two new mounting hole components appear a ways off the edge of the board - also named U9 and U11 (the duplicates).

PCB-2.png
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and then, if you renew again, additional duplicates appear in the exact same spots (stacked on top of each other - you can see them by click/dragging them away).
Each time you renew, another set of these duplicate components appear.


It's almost as though the software forgets that these are components. They do not show up in the Design Manager panel on the right side, and when you select one (in the PCB layout tool), they show the U9 or U11 refdes up top, but selecting "properties" from the menu you can't change any other normal component properties - just the mounting hole properties. If you add a third component to the PCB, say an arbitrary capacitor, then you can "select all", right click the capacitor, and do things like show/hide the refdes, etc, which applies to all three of them, indirectly letting you update the properties of the mounting hole components.

If you save this file then (with the refdes markings visible), then exit DipTrace, re-launch it, and re-open the PCB file, the U9 and U11 components will now show up in the Design Manager - it now recognizes them as components.

PCB-3.png
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Unfortunately, however, that doesn't solve it. At this point, if you renew from schematic, the "duplicate" components appear, but the original components disappear!
And the "duplicates" are without refdes markings, and again will be absent from the Design Manager. Not to mention that it has wiped out the copy of the components on the board, which are the ones we care about!

PCB-4.png
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Jack_M
Posts: 23
Joined: 31 Mar 2016, 20:38

Re: DipTrace 4.1 beta

#40 Post by Jack_M » 22 Jan 2021, 23:10

Hi,
The new features in the 4.1 beta made me want to try diptrace V4, i actually haven't used it yet, i'm still on version 3, so i haven't been following on the new features.
I am having problems with the polyline tool and i don't understand if i'm doing something wrong or if it's a bug:
I want to place the point precisely at coordinates and in V3 i would just edit the points, but now the polygon moves. Okay, i see i have an option for the polygon Center position, but it's still useless because i change the coordinates of a point, the center is recalculated and placed at the required position so all other points are moved.

It is really frustrating and it's making me lose a lot of time: 10minutes plus writing this post for something i would have done in ten seconds before.

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