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

[bancika]

here's the new one, I used the 3rd color you suggested, shape is closer to real too...

cheers

[s.r.v.]

to be honest i like the old version more, but the alpha is still really cool. COuple of questions...
how do you deleted components?
How do you flip transistors?
wheres the cool little parts list at the bottom?
thanks!

[bancika]

It's still early stage, I've been working on it for about 10 days only. You can't possible like the old one better, this one will be much-much better, and I'm sure it's apparent even now.
You can't delete components in that version, but meanwhile I made it work, next version will have deletion. To flip transistor double click on it and write the angle you want to rotate it for, I'll make it better, but that's for starters.
As for parts list, it will be on the separate window, not to interfere with the layout but you'll be able to append it on image file when exporting or as a text/html file.
Stay tuned

[bancika]

New addition: program will be able to render external image files. The procedure is: you choose any image file, it gets encoded into DIY project file (so you don't need original file any more) and you can set transparency level and rotation angle in the app. Check this out

[scaesic]

New addition: program will be able to render external image files. The procedure is: you choose any image file, it gets encoded into DIY project file (so you don't need original file any more) and you can set transparency level and rotation angle in the app. Check this out

Thats ridiculous! I can't beleive you made that!

i like it...

Also, i agree that this version is much much better, the other one was useful but frustratingly sluggish and looked a little amatuer, this one looks really pro.

As i said earlier, with deletion and save/render to gif this could go straight to beta, and probably even be used as a final edition.

Things like enclosure design, and selectable enclosures and offboard components and even a ruler can all be added in version 1.1 etc.

The modular library i think makes this programme much better, you can add things like those zvex style pots, and effectively design any pedal using any parts.

[bancika]

The modular library i think makes this programme much better, you can add things like those zvex style pots, and effectively design any pedal using any parts.

exactly, that's the main strength here and it was not simple to build engine around that. I still have some performance concerns, but it's not caused by slow graphics (java has great graphics support) but by complex math and parsing string formulas from component files into numbers. But that's the price that has to be paid for modularity. I'm trying to optimize it great deal, so having 1 resistor on the board works about as fast as having 50 of them because the math is the same for all resistor and it just re-uses the same formulas already calculated for one resistor. The issue is when you have many different types of components which have different math behind, but still, with current version and all 25 different component on screen it can render the whole layout in about 100mS, which is great I think.
Stay tuned, I'll post new alpha later today, Saving/Loading works, deleting too.

Btw, nobody commented on wire yet, and I think it's so cool 

[scaesic]

The modular library i think makes this programme much better, you can add things like those zvex style pots, and effectively design any pedal using any parts.

exactly, that's the main strength here and it was not simple to build engine around that. I still have some performance concerns, but it's not caused by slow graphics (java has great graphics support) but by complex math and parsing string formulas from component files into numbers. But that's the price that has to be paid for modularity. I'm trying to optimize it great deal, so having 1 resistor on the board works about as fast as having 50 of them because the math is the same for all resistor and it just re-uses the same formulas already calculated for one resistor. The issue is when you have many different types of components which have different math behind, but still, with current version and all 25 different component on screen it can render the whole layout in about 100mS, which is great I think.
Stay tuned, I'll post new alpha later today, Saving/Loading works, deleting too.

Btw, nobody commented on wire yet, and I think it's so cool 

The wire is pretty cool, the thing that annoyed me about the old wire was having to repeatedly click on it to change shape, and the shape was never gauranteed to be the one you wanted.

It's a bit weird. I was trying to figure out whether the "edit squares" should be visible or not. Its not very intuitive if they're visible, but by a different logic it's not very intuitive if they ARNT visible.

They work well though.

[bancika]

The wire is pretty cool, the thing that annoyed me about the old wire was having to repeatedly click on it to change shape, and the shape was never gauranteed to be the one you wanted.

It's a bit weird. I was trying to figure out whether the "edit squares" should be visible or not. Its not very intuitive if they're visible, but by a different logic it's not very intuitive if they ARNT visible.

They work well though.

what edit squares?

[scaesic]

The wire is pretty cool, the thing that annoyed me about the old wire was having to repeatedly click on it to change shape, and the shape was never gauranteed to be the one you wanted.

It's a bit weird. I was trying to figure out whether the "edit squares" should be visible or not. Its not very intuitive if they're visible, but by a different logic it's not very intuitive if they ARNT visible.

They work well though.

what edit squares?

the edit circles then?

Is it possible to make the response logarithmic so the wire moves increasing amounts the further you move the circles away?

[bancika]

oh, you mean control points? but without them, how could you control the curve, old version uses random points so that's why it looks weird. When you export/print layout they won't be visible.

[bancika]

new alpha is up, give it a go http://www.storm-software.co.yu/diylc/diylc_alpha.zip
cheers 

[scaesic]

couple of points.

its hard to select the schematic ground, probably for the same reasons as the capacitor schematic symbol.

its hard to select the perf board if you have a background image, it just keeps selecting the background image till you put a new component in.

the normal terminology is "*.diy" instead of "just diy files" but thats being a bit arsey.

Could do with a "trace" so you dont have to use jumper wires all the time.

Where does the BOM file go? maybe this isnt finished.

I could save a file, but i couldnt get it to re-open it, just does nothing.

[bancika]

about selection: I could widen selection area around lines for 1 more px (it's already 1px wider than the line itself)
BOM is not done yet
saving/loading works for me, what do you mean by does nothing?

[scaesic]

also, stripboards dont seem to be working.

basically if i hit "save project" i dont see any file saved, if i "save file as" then first i have to manually type in .diy, and then it produces a file. When i go to open it nothing changes in the programe, nothing opens and the page remains blank.

Dunno if thats going to be any help?

[scaesic]

one more thing, i hit update button and it said changes will be reflected when you restart the program.

when i restarted it said the following component files could not be processed and pointed to "new.xml". these files will be ignored.

[bancika]

yeah, that file from the site is not a valid component...it was when I uploaded it but I changed file format a bit so it's not any more.

I know about stripboard, still not done I'll look into saving/loading

Important: format is still evolving, so don't do anything serious in alpha, there's good chance that it's not going to work with the next version. This is for testing only.

Even more important: my first goal with this version was to keep back compatibility with windows version but some very cool things could not be done with limitations old format had. And with every new cool thing I implement we're another step further from old format. For starters, program will not be able to read old files, they are just too different. Hopefully, I'll make a converter that will be able to convert good part of old layouts but probably not entirely. So transition won't be easy.
But we should be all happy for the evolution

[ezanker]

I've just downloaded the alpha and played with it for a few minutes.  Great job as usual, and thank you for donating your time and expertise to the community!!!

For me, the resistor schematic symbol does not render properly, the squiggly part is invisible. 

Also the screen flashes (completely redraws) every time anything is placed, moved, sometimes during a move, etc.  Is there a way for you to avoid this distracting flicker?

For inserted images, could there be a way to send them back or bring them forward in the z-order?

For schematic images, can the name and/or value be displayed with the symbol, or do we need to insert separate text?

Again, great job and I really like the new wire option: much easier to control the curves.
Erik

[scaesic]

For inserted images, could there be a way to send them back or bring them forward in the z-order?

yeah, thats what i was trying to get at but couldnt put the words together!

[bancika]

resistor is not done yet, that's why you don't see it It's not easy to write math part for schematic symbols...

As for screen flashing, it's weird that it happens. I mean, it does refresh the whole screen wherever you change something (I don't know smarter way to do it) but it's done really fast and with double buffering so you really shouldn't see anything. What machine/OS do you have?

As for z-order, I'll make that option. Already thought about it, there will be "Move to front" and "Send to back" options to do that, similarly to corel draw. Currently, there are a few z-order classes, the lower the class the lower it's going to be rendered. For instance, enclosure has 0 class, nothing goes below it, boards have 1 class, etc. The problem is when you have more than one component from the same class. Currently, it draws most recently added  component on the top. With new options, I'd make it possible to change z-order of components but only within it's class, so you can't make a resistor go under chassis or something. Hope it makes sense.

As for schematic symbol names/values, still can't think of a good way to do it. I mean, I could make it write the text at some pre-fixed place relative to the component but there's a good chance that it's not always the best place. Using additional text is a bit more work, but much more flexible. Any better ideas?

Cheers

[bancika]

One more thing, try using draft mode to see if it's any faster, F12 toggles this option...it reduces graphics quality to improve the speed.