Documentation

CAM Plot - Plot Settings

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This page allows you to view or modify various settings for plotting. This includes the settings for each kind of output device, and the locations for writing output files.

Locating this option

Available from: Output menu > CAM Plot > Plot Settings tab

Using the dialog

Output Device

In this section of the dialog, you can view and change the settings for each kind of output device available. Use the drop-down list to choose the output device you wish to look at, and the current settings will be displayed in the large text area below.

If you need to change any of these settings, press the “Setup” button to access the Setup dialog for the output device. The actual dialog that is displayed is different for each kind of output device (Excellon, Gerber, HP-GL Pen, PDF, Windows).

You can create a new named output device, press New. You will be prompted to type the name for the device, and select the appropriate type. Press OK and the new device will be created. Then you can change the settings for this device and reference it in a CAM Plot entry.

If you want to delete a user defined device, select the device, then press Delete. This does not delete any existing CAM Plots which reference this device, but you will not be able to generate that output. You will need to change that plot to use another device, or create a new device with the same name.

For each output device, you can save and load settings to a file. Use the Save To File and Load From File buttons to do this. You must select the appropriate device type before a file can be successfully loaded.

Folder For Output Files

This section defines where the output files are written. You can choose from four different settings by selecting from the drop-down list.

  • Design Folder : output files will be written to the same folder as the design file itself. If the design has not been saved yet the file will be written to the general folder. (See General Folders).
  • This Folder : you specify the folder where all output files are written. The same folder will be used for all output files generated. If you type a relative path it will be applied to the current working directory. You can use the pop-up menu to the right of the folder name box to insert keywords that will be replaced with the correct text when the output file is generated. These keywords are explained in the Output File Names Template section below.
  • This Folder below design file : you specify a folder name which will be appended to the folder in which the design is stored. For example, if your design is stored in “C:\My Projects\Board 6\Revision 2.pcb”, you can set the output folder name to “Plots” and all the output files will be written to the folder called “C:\My Projects\Board 6\Plots”. You can use the pop-up menu to the right of the folder name box to insert keywords that will be replaced with the correct text when the output file is generated. These keywords are explained in the Output File Names Template section below. For example, you could use one of the keywords to define the folder than all PDF plots are written to. By using ‘This Folder below design file’ and then the template $(PlotDevice).
  • General Folder : Use the folder defined in the General Folders dialog. The name of the General folder pre-defined will be shown greyed out as not selectable in the box.

ZIP The Output Files

Pack output files into a ZIP : Choose this option to pack all of the generated output files into a ZIP. This will be placed in the location chosen in the Folder For Output Files section.

Remove individual files after ZIP : Choose this option if you have chosen to pack all the generated output files into a ZIP and do not want to also have a set of individual output files.

Output File Names Template

This section allows you to choose the way your output files are named. You can type fixed text into the box, and use the drop down menu button to the right of the file name box to insert keywords that will be replaced with the appropriate text when the output file is generated. The first set of keywords, above the menu dividing line, are only inserted once and therefore show a tick on the menu when inserted. Click on an inserted keyword in the menu to remove it from the template. The keywords below the line can be added multiply and so do not show a ‘tick’ when inserted, and have to be removed by editing the template. The keywords you can use are described below:

  • Design Name : The name of the design the plot is being generated for. If this is the only keyword used and more than one plot is output a number is appended to the end of the file name.

    e.g “MyDesign_1.gbr, MyDesign_2.gbr, MyDesign_3.drl”

  • Plot Device : The name of the output device the plot is for. i.e. “Gerber”, “Excellon”, “Windows”, “Pen Plot”, “PDF” and “PDFA”

  • Plot Group : The name of plot group that the plot is in. Each plot can be allocated to a plot group using the Plot Wizard. If the plot being run is not in a plot group this keyword will simply be removed from the file name.

  • Plot Name : The name of the plot being generated. e.g. “Top Electrical”. Note: If the output file contains multiple plots, for PDF output for example, this keyword will not be used, and will be removed from the name.

  • Plot String : The plot string defined for the current plot.

  • Design Variant : The name of the Variant being plotted. If variants are not being used, or the current variant is set to the master design variant, the keyword will be replaced with “Master Design”.

  • Design Type : The type of the design that the plot is being generated for. This is the default file extension text, so “pcb” for a PCB design and “sch” for a schematic design. This is only used for combined plots, in particular PDF output, when plots are combined into a single document. For example, a plot file which is generated from a PCB design will have pcb replace the keyword in the output file name. This may be important because in this case there is no plot name to add and a PDF plot output from both the PCB and Schematic designs would result in the same output file name.

  • Date and Time - The Date or Time when the file is produced. The format used is the short form of the system time format, but with all special file path characters replaced with a dash character.

  • Design Attribute : Use this to insert the value of a design level attribute into the filename when the plot file is generated. If the attribute does not exist, or its value is empty the keyword will not be used and will be removed from the name. Choosing this keyword from the menu will add ”$(ATTR)” to the template, where “attr_name” must be replaced in the template with the name of the attribute you want to use.

    e.g. If the design has an attribute “JOB_NO” with the value “1806”, then ”$(ATTR)” will be replaced with “1808” in the name.

    Note: If the attribute value is for a file name rather than a folder, all folder path special characters in the value will be replaced with an underscore character when the template is applied.

  • Start Pre-Text and End Post-Text: Most keywords are obvious, but the ”$(PRE)” and ”$(POST)” keywords are a little different. They are used to add text either side of another optional keyword, but only if it is not blank. So if the optional keyword has a value then the text between the pre-text keyword and the optional keyword will be included and the text between the optional keyword and the post-text keyword will be included. If the optional keyword results in blank text the pre-text and post-text keywords, and all text between them, will be removed from the filename.

    For example ”$(PRE)[$(Variant)]$(POST)” will be replaced by “[USA]” for a plot for variant “USA” and will produce nothing for a plot with no variant.

  • If Then Else: There is also a set of advanced keywords that can be used to create conditional folder and filename templates. For example to have completely different CAM Plot file names or folders for each of the different plot device types. The following keywords are added from the menu item as a combined set, but they can also be inserted by hand. If the full set is added from the menu you have to replace each “xxx” text with your own text or keywords:

    $(IF) $(MATCHES) $(THEN) $(ELSE) $(ENDIF)

    If the text following the ”$(IF)” keyword matches the text following the ”$(MATCHES)” keyword, the text following the ”$(THEN)” keyword will be included in the name, otherwise the text following the ”$(ELSE)” keyword will be included. There must always be a ”$(ENDIF)” keyword at the end of the condition. Using ”$(MATCHES) allows you to use wildcard characters in the text following it, but you can replace it with keywords ”$(=)” or ”$(!=)” to test exactly equals or not equals respectively. Note: nested conditions are not allowed, i.e. an ”$(IF)” keyword should not be placed inside another ”$(IF) … $(ENDIF)” sequence.

    For example, for design “myDesign.pcb” with design level attribute “Issue” with value “V02” the following template ”$(DesignName)-$(IF)$(PlotDevice)$(MATCHES)PDF*$(THEN)Drawing$(ELSE)$(ATTR)$(ENDIF)” will produce “mydesign-V02” for a Gerber plot and “myDesign-Drawing” for PDF or PDF/A plots.

The Output File Names Template can be reset to the default by pressing the Use Default button. The default is ”$(DesignName)$(PRE)-$(Variant)$(PRE)-$(CombinedType)$(PRE)($(PlotName))$(POST)“.

Some Examples

For example to create a file name made up of Design Name followed by the Plot Name in brackets the template would be ”$(DesignName)$(PRE)($(PlotName))$(POST)“. For a pen plot output this would create the following name:

e.g. “MyDesign(Top Electrical).hp”

A more complete example is a template that handles variants and design type. The following template is equivalent to using all of the file name “based on” switches in the previous Pulsonix release:

”$(DesignName)$(PRE)-$(Variant)$(PRE)-$(CombinedType)$(PRE)($(PlotName))$(POST)”

With no variant and not using a combined plot the name would be as follows:

e.g. “MyDesign-Master Design(Top Electrical).hp”

The same plot for a variant called “USA” would include the specific variant in name:

e.g. “MyDesign-USA(Top Electrical).hp”

A combined PDF output file for several layers for a variant called “USA” would not include the plot name (as there are two) but would include the design type:

e.g. “MyDesign-USA-pcb.pdf”

Note: If the template is for a file name rather than a folder, all folder path special characters will be removed from the name when the template is applied.

Change Output File Name

Use this if you want all output files to be based on a specified name. A number will be added to the end of the name to generate a unique name for each file generated in any one plot “run”. If you leave the file extension off, the default extension for the type of plot being generated will be added. If you just type a file name with no directory, the above mentioned folder will be used.

Leave unchecked to use the above mentioned default plot file name.

Plot Report

Create A Report : You can choose if you want a report at all. If this is checked you have some options regarding the report.

View When Run : You can choose whether the plot report that is written at the end of each run will be displayed on the screen after it has been generated.

Append To Existing : The plot report will normally be overwritten each time press Run. Check this option to append (add) to any existing report, instead of overwriting. You will then need to scroll to the end of the report to view information about the latest plot.

Save With Output Files : Use this to direct the plot report to be saved with the output files.

Save To Reports Folder : Use this to direct the plot report to the reports folder.

Include In ZIP : If you have chosen to pack output files into a ZIP, then use this to also include the report file in the ZIP.

Excellon Setup | Gerber Setup | Pen Setup | PDF Setup | Windows Setup

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