Gerber Export (old style) from Linux text console

[Anonymous]

We are exporting our designs on a headless Linux machine.  Using Eagle 6, we've been successfull in setting up an Xvfb server to run an ULP unattended for creation of BOMs etc, and then use a number of commands like

eagle -X -N -o"outline.gbr" -A "A" -d GERBER_RS274X "$brdfile" 20 46

to generate the Gerber files.  Now, migrating to Eagle 9.5.2, the first step works (after some wasted hours), but I can't run the -X option anymore.

If I run

eagle -X -dGERBER_RS274X -ooutline.gbr -AA "$brdfile" 20 46

I get

QWidget: Cannot create a QWidget without QApplication
Aborted (core dumped)

If I run

eagle -X+ -dGERBER_RS274X -ooutline.gbr -AA "$brdfile" 20 46

I get a dialog window on my framebuffer telling me that variant A could not be set, then an empty dialog window, and then eagle exits.

I've found another thread here dealing with the issue, but after giving that user the option to use CAM-jobs, the initial problem wasn't investigated anymore.  I'd like to resort to the old-style way of creating Gerber files, so any help largely appreciated.

Kind regards,

Paul

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. I think this issue is with the variant part of the command. This was deprecated with the release of V7 since hierarchy endend up affecting how variants could work. For this reason the CAM processor no longer works when specifying a variant. If you need to produce the artwork for a variant you have to run the save-brd-variants.ulp on the board. It will generate a separate board file for each variant, you would then use you normal script without the variant option to generate the gerbers of the file you want.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

Hello Jorge,

sorry, some time has passed ...

I had a look at the save-brd-variants.ulp.  As far as I understand it just makes copies of a board where the respective variant is set, all other variants are still in the board.  This is actually the situation I have, my own script sets the variant and saves the file.  But the variant still has to be set for a proper export, even with save-brd-variants.  But when I run

eagle -X+ -N -o foo.gbr -d GERBER_RS274X XXX-A.brd 20 46

I get a dialog telling me that "XXX-A.brd is not set to assembly variant ''!"

I am sorry but I do not see how this solves my problem.  Any help appreciated.

Regards,

Paul

[jorge_garcia]

Hello @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. The idea is that each of those copies of the brd should be a standalone copy of one of the variants.

I'll double check with the devs and see if anything has changed.

Best Regards,

[Anonymous]

If I have a design with a resistor R5 with value 1k in the standard variant, and value 2k in variant 'A', and R5 not populated in variant 'B', and I want to export variant B and create a file with only variant B, I still need to set this variant when exporting.  I don't see how having a file with only variant B (and the standard variant, which is always present) helps in the case of the CAM processor.  (Plus I don't see how save-brd-variants.ulp helps, since it saves the same board with different variants *set*, but all others still *present*.)

Regards,

Paul

[Anonymous]

@jorge_garciado you have a solution to this problem?

[Anonymous]

Hello @jorge_garcia ,

my colleague Wagner has informed me that he has sent you an example of our problem a few weeks ago. I now take the liberty to ask you again whether you have already been able to tackle our problem or maybe even have a solution for us.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @Anonymous,

I hope you're doing well. I have brought this up to the developers, it seems like this has been affected for a while. There's no immediate solution to fix the console situation, so the workaround for now is to open the file set the variant and then run the CAM processor that should get you the output for the variant.

This will likely not be addressed for the next release. There are a few things that need to be corrected for this to work again so it's not a trivial fix.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,