CAM processor Image PDF generation

[mike.durian]

I'm trying to use the Image section of the CAM processor to generate PDFs of some of the layers of the job. Under the general "Image" section, you can specify PDF as the output type. That brings up a set of PDF-specific options. You can select the paper size, toggle a "Fit to page" setting and select the page orientation. You can also specify a filename, which is weird since the filename should be specific to the image you are generating.

Then you can add the images you want to generate under the Image section. For each of those, you specify the layers you want, the name of the image and the filename. Plus a couple other toggle values.

The problem is with the image filename. It is ignored. Instead it uses the general filename from the Image section configuration. If you are generating two or more images, they'll all use the same filename, regardless of what you have set for each image. If you set "foo" as the filename in the Images section header, then each image will be named foo.pdf.

It also seems to ignore the fit-to-page setting and the Orientation setting.

Since one might want to generate different images in different formats, arguably, the output type really should be image-specific and not set in the general Image section header. And the filenames should definitely be image-specific.

These problems appear to be PDF-specific. If I select PNG as the output type, filenames work as expected.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for posting. We have an open ticket with precisely this issue. I'm going to include your comments in that ticket since it's actually been discussed recently.

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

Best Regards,

[mike.durian]

Thanks

[HelenChen-ElectronicsQA]

Hi @mike.durian ,

Hope you all is well.

Today we released new version of Fusion 2.0.15291 which has improvement for the issue you reported to us.

Could you please refer to another post to get more details? https://forums.autodesk.com/t5/fusion-360-electronics/printing-the-footprints-to-check-if-components...

Could you please update to latest version and have a try?

Hope it helps and hope you have a great day.

Best regards,

Helen

[mike.durian]

Hi @HelenChen-ElectronicsQA ,

I have finally gotten around to checking this. I am now at version 2.0.15509. The issue has not been fixed. It still uses the filename specified here:

Instead of the one specified here:

In my case, it is creating foo.pdf instead of component_placement_top.pdf.

There really shouldn't be an option to specify a filename at the "Images" level. The filename needs to be specified of each specific image. In my case, I'm actually trying to create two different images: one for the top and one for the bottom. Instead of getting two image files, I only get a single foo.pdf.

mike

 

[mike.durian]

I removed the accept as solution tag from @jorge_garcia 's post since the eventual update mentioned by @HelenChen-ElectronicsQA did not fix the problem.

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @mike.durian,

I just looked into the ticket for this issue and its still open, looks like it was not addressed in this last release. I dont know when it will be addressed but Ill give it a bump to get more eyes on it.

Best Regards,

[mike.durian]

Thanks

[HelenChen-ElectronicsQA]

Hi @mike.durian ,

Sorry for any confusion. Seems there is some misunderstanding here.

Please let me explain a little bit.

If we export the Image as PDF from the image node or entire CAM processor, then it will only generate one single PDF document with specified file name in this main Image node, but in each PDF page it will use the specified file name as footer.

For your case that if you want to export each image as PDF format with specified file name separately, you could right click each image and export them one by one separately, then you will get the expected PDF files.

Could you please try this in latest Fusion version 2.0.16265 and see whether it makes sense for you?

Hope it helps a little and hope you have a great day.

Best regards,

Helen

[mike.durian]

Hi @HelenChen-ElectronicsQA ,

I don't explicitly export the image files. I configure them to save to separate files by setting the Image filename for each layer set (just like I do with the ODB+ and Gerber outputs) and then Process Job. This ends up creating a single file instead of separate files, as one would expect. This is true as of 2.0.16009.

If you leave the filename blank in the Image tab but set file names for each individual  layer set, it still creates one file. Only it is called '.pdf'.

Notice that none of the other image formats have this problem. They don't give you the option of combining the images into one file and behave as one would expect. The bug is just with the PDF output format. The behavior shouldn't change just because the format is PDF and not JPG or PNG or Gerber or whatever.

If Fusion wants to provide the option of combining separate images into a single file (an option I'd argue that is of little value since you can always combine the separate images yourself outside of Fusion), there are two options:

1) Create a checkbox in the Images tabs that says "Combine images into single PDF". This should be disabled by default.

2) Check the individual image filenames. If two (or more) have the same resolved filename, then combine them. If they have different filenames, then keep them separate.

So, I'm sorry to report that this bug has not been fixed.

mike

[haiyuan.lanPUMBU]

Hi @mike.durian 
According to you comments above, I'm not sure what's the issue indeed. As Helen shown, when you right-click image and export, you could get one PDF file that include all pages. If you select one file and right-click to export, you could get one PDF file that include one page. This is how it works, from my side I don't think it's an issue.

And can we say, you want some improvements here? Your expected result is add one "Combine images into single PDF" check box, when check it, the behavior is same with how it works now. If unchecking, when we right-click image and export, we could get several PDF files, one PDF is respond to one layer set. 

[mike.durian]

Hi @haiyuan.lanPUMBU ,

While right-clicking on the individual image layer sets might provide a work-around, I believe this is still a bug. As noted above, the PDF image type is the only output format that combines layer sets into a single file. This does not happen with Gerbers, ODB+, drill files, PNG, JPG, etc. Just PDF. It's the odd duck.

As mentioned, I use Process Job to create all my output files. I don't want to have to separately right click on images to get them generated as separate files (and then delete the one combined PDF that was generated when I used Process Job).

If combining PDF outputs into a single file is something that might be useful to some people, it should be opt-in. Combining outputs is the exception condition. It is not like the others. You don't even specify the filename in the same place as other output formats. This different behavior should not be the default. Behaving like all the other output formats should be the default. This is why I feel this behavior is a bug, whether intentional or not.

While I don't think combining outputs into a single PDF is necessary at all, since it is easy enough to do outside of Fusion, after all the outputs have been generated, if it a feature that Fusion wants to include, I gave two methods of doing it that will be less surprising to the end-user. One is adding an opt-in checkbox that would combine outputs instead of keeping them separate (depending on the state it should also grey-out either the combined output filename or the individual output filenames to make it clear which file(s) will be generated).

The second option I listed is making the output generator smarter. Instead of having a place where you enter the combined output filename, only use separate filenames. The output generator would detect if two (or more) of the output files resolve to the same filesystem location and if so, it will combine the outputs into a single file. This method has the advantage of being more flexible. If you want everything is separate files, give them all different names. If you want all images in the same file, use one filename for everything. If you want your output grouped into two output files use one filename for some of the layer sets and a different filename for the others. That way you can have all output in a single file, all output in separate files or something in between.

mike

[haiyuan.lanPUMBU]

Hi @mike.durian 

Got it. We will have a look on it.
Thanks for reporting it.
Please contact us if you have other quesions.

[m.ensing2UAQJ]

I agree, I would rather see separate files, or an option to have all your image files combined. Now you have to either export the seperate files, Or print them from the combined file. annoying.