EEWinPlot - The Windows photoplotter

What is EEWinPlot

Menu items

Zooming in and out on your plotfile

About EEWINPLT.DAT

Program History

Supported file formats

Shareware Registration

Warranty, license agreement

Author Contact


What is EEWinPlot

EEWinPlot is a photoplotter emulator for Windows 3.1. You can load, view and print files created for photoplotter devices.

Files for the production of printed circuit boards are normally photoplotted directly on film which in turn is used as a mask while exposing the (copper) layers of the PCB before etching them. Traditional photoplotters are very bulky (5 sq. m), very expensive ($100.000) and very slow devices (takes often hours for a single film), so often it is helpful to view and proof-print the plot files before sending them off to the PCB-manufacturer for photoplotting.

With EEWinPlot it is possible to 'photoplot' files of two formats most often used in electrical engineering software. You can plot files using GERBER format for PCB-Layers and EXCELLON format for drill files. You can zoom in on details of the plots on screen and you can print the files using any windows printer, scaled to fit or 1:1 format.

Both file formats - Gerber and Excellon - do not use real aperture/drill widths and shapes in the files. They only tell the plotter the NUMBER of the drill or aperture to use. You need to define tables to map aperture/drill numbers to the appropriate shapes and widths. These tables are defined in an ASCII-File named EEWINPLT.DAT, normally in the subdirectory EEWINPLT.EXE comes from. Because you may want to have several different definition files with different tables it is possible to have different copies of EEWINPLT.DAT in the subdirectories you keep your plotfiles. Each time you load a plotfile EEWinPlot searches the same subdirectory first for a copy of EEWINPLT.DAT. Only if not found it turns to look at the directory EEWINPLT.EXE came from and the windows directory (normally "C:\WINDOWS").

See also "About EEWINPLT.DAT"


Menu items

File
Load
Print
Print setup
Exit

Zoom
Fit

Configure
Setup EEWinPlot

Help
Contents
About EEWinPlot


File Load

This command brings up the common "file load" dialog. You can now specify the file you want to load and view with EEWinPlot. You can select the disk drive and subdirectory using the fields on the right side and specify the file name on the left side. There is a special file format selection box on the lower left side. You can choose one of the following formats: "Gerber relative", "Gerber absolute" or "Excellon". For more information on File formats see Supported file formats and Setup EEWinPlot

If you select the wrong format EEWinPlot will not be able to display your plotfile!

After hitting the OK Button EEWinPlot will load your plotfile and then display it on screen. The plotfile will be scaled to fit the screen but the aspect ratio is preserved. You can then zoom in on details and out again to see the whole picture (see Zooming in and out on your plotfiles).


File Print

This menu selection brings you to the "Print options box". You can then select one of two printing options: "Fit to page" or "1:1 (no scaling)".

"Fit to Page" scales the plotfile up or down to the size of the printing paper. It won't change the aspect ratio of the plot.

"1:1 (no scaling)" prints the plotfile the same size it will plot on a photoplotter. If  it does not fit on the printer page it is clipped to a size fitting, so you will loose parts of the plot if it is too big.

Printing a complex image may take several minutes, but not hours as on the big photoplotters.


Print setup

Using this menu selection you can change the destination printer for your prints. If you do not change anything here you will print on your default windows printer using default orientation. Using the "print setup dialog" you can change the printer, the paper orientation (landscape or portrait) and  you may even set printer options or network connections.


Exit

Well, you should know what this menu selection means: It terminates the program.


Zoom fit

After you have loaded a plotfile using file load it will be displayed on the screen. The plot will be scaled to fit the screen. Later you can zoom in on details and scroll through the plot using the scroll-bars (See Zooming in and out on your plotfile). Any time you want to return to the first picture with the plotfile fitted to the screen just select this menu item.


Setup EEWinPlot

Use this menu selection to setup two program options for permanent storage. They are stored in a separate EEWINPLT.INI file in your windows directory and will be loaded each time you start EEWINPLT. Two options are available now: "Default file format" and "Ignore undefined Gerber codes".

In the "Default file format" area you can select one of the following formats: "Gerber relative", "Gerber absolute" or "Excellon" as a default for the file open dialog. For more information  see Supported file formats and File Load.

Turned on the "Ignore undefined Gerber codes" checkbox will suppress normal warning messages during file load. Gerber and Excellon file formats use aperture/drill tables to map codes to shapes and widths. When entries in the tables are missing EEWinPlot will not know how to plot a file using these codes. For more information on File formats see Supported file formats.


Help contents

Displays the main help menu. Use normal Help functionality to search for the topics of interest, view or print them.


About EEWinPlot

Displays the about box with information on copyright and software version. Use this selection to find out version number when requesting updates.


Zooming in and out on your plotfiles

After your plotfile is loaded and displayed on screen you can zoom in on details and out again to seee the whole picture. When you zoom in on a certain area of interest, this area is shown enlarged on the screen. You can then scroll (move) the enlarged view of the plotfile with the scrollbars to see more of the plotfile.

Zooming in is very easy: Just  move the cursor to one corner the zooming-area, press the left mouse-button, and while holding it pressed move the cursor to the opposite corner. A rectangle will show on screen, everything inside that rectangle will be visible in the enlarged view of the plotfile. When you are satisfied with your selection let the left mouse button go: Your zoomed view of the area you selected will be drawn.

Zooming out is even easier: Just select Zoom-Fit from the menu-bar and your plotfile will be displayed again as a whole.


About EEWINPLT.DAT

Both supported file formats - Gerber and Excellon - do not use real aperture/drill widths and shapes in the files. They only tell the plotter the NUMBER of the drill or aperture to use. You need to define tables to map aperture/drill numbers to the appropriate shapes and widths. These tables are defined in an ASCII-File named EEWINPLT.DAT, normally in the subdirectory EEWINPLT.EXE comes from.

Because you may want to have several different definition files with different tables it is possible to have different copies of EEWINPLT.DAT in the subdirectories you keep your plotfiles. Each time you load a plotfile EEWinPlot searches the same subdirectory first for a copy of EEWINPLT.DAT. Only if not found it turns to look at the directory EEWINPLT.EXE came from and the windows directory (normally "C:\WINDOWS").

EEWINPLT.DAT is written in the following format:

- Comments are preceded by a semicolon. You can insert comments for readability.
- Every line contains either a comment, a Gerber aperture definition or a Excellon drill definition.
- Excellon drill definitions look like "Ennn,ddd", where nnn is the drill number and ddd is the drill diameter.
- Gerber aperture definitions use the format "D<d-code>,<shape>,<diameter>, where  <d-code> is the d-code number used in the Gerber file, <shape> is either CIRCLE, SQUARE, TARGET or  ISOPAD. CIRCLE and SQUARE are round and square shapes, TARGET are marks for the layer alignment and ISOPAD will show as a thermal isolation pad for negative planes. <diameter> again specifies the diameter of the aperture.

The following fragment is an example of a  EEWINPLT.DAT file.

; Comments like this are preceded with a semicolon. All other lines contain
; single records of the aperture/drill definition.
;
; Now following: Circle definitions
D10,CIRCLE,8
D11,CIRCLE,10
D12,CIRCLE,55
;
; Square definitions
D21,SQUARE,12
D76,SQUARE,55
;
; ISOPADs
D22,ISOPAD,55
;
; Target definitions
D88,TARGET,180
;

; Excellon definitions
E0,20
E1,28
E2,35


Program History

Version, Date	Comments

v 2.0, ?	Entirely up to YOU! I have some ideas as to what to implement in the next version, but i want to know your needs and likes! Please comment IN ANY FORM, BY ANY MEANS on this program. Feedback is extremly important to help making better programs for YOU. Please see Author contact for adresses and drop me a note! Some ideas:
- more file formats: Sieb + Meyer, HP-GL, ? (comment... as I said above...)
- Statistics: pad count,  trace width, density, ? (...)
- ? (...)

v 1.0, 8/21/93	use disk-based metafile for long Gerber files avoiding memory problems
made Config data persistent after exit program
no primary/secondary: Extended feature will be enabled again in 2.0...
print with fit to page and paper orientation
load gerber.ini from subdir
do not reset load init-dir at each load
allow format selection in load box
corrected still incorrect Gerber reader
changed Excellon reader to accept more formats, include drill table
corrected small X-Y ratio calculation error while displaying, printing.
use banding with printing: avoid memory problems
close init file after reading
implemented thermal isolation pads

v 0.2, 7/22/93	Greyed Menu Options when file not loaded
zoom by mouse-rectangle
improve scaling for non-quadrates and at all
reverse rectangle support
added "target" drawing
added Excellon plotting
ignore bad d-codes setup
Version 0.2 sent to WINSHARE on CompuServe for review

v 0.1, 6/19/93	Created v 0.1 out of DOS code fragments and sheer need during two nights.


Supported file formats

Currently there are two file formats supported: Gerber format for PCB layers and Excellon format for drill-files.

The Gerber format:
The Gerber format is used mostly for PCB layers it is a fairly simple plotter language implementing essentially only Pen-Up, Pen-Down, Move Pen and Flash commands. The traditional gerber plotter consists of a very accurate pen-plotter with the pen exchanged for a light source for plotting on film. The light source has got an aperture wheel in front of it. This aperture wheel containts various holes with defined shapes and sizes wich can be selected by plotter-command. The selection is done wich the "Dxx" command with "xx" is a number meaning the position of the desired aperture on the aperture-wheel. Because there are many different possible aperture-wheels EEWinPlot can not know from this number the shape and size of the desired aperture. The number only points to an entry in a aperture-table you must provide (See About EEWINPLT.DAT). Pen-Down, wich is named "D01" in the Gerber language switches on the light, Pen-Up ("D02") switches off the light, Move ("XnnnYmmm") moves the pen to the desired position in an straight line with on or off as it was before the move command. Flash is the only plotter-uncommon command. I will flash a high-intensity light, so the aperture-shape is plotted once. This is useful for fast drawing of pads, targets and the like. The gerber format comes in two variations: Absolute and Relative. The absolute format has its coordinates (XnnnYmmmm) in absolute mils (milli-inches), the relative variation uses relative coordinates based on the coordinate before. You can select your format at load time (see File-Load) or as default (See Setup EEWinPlot).

The Excellon format:
Excellon format files are used for PCB drilling. They tell the drilling machine, which is nothing but a plotter with the pen exchanged for a drilling-machine. The Excellon drilling machine understands even fewer commands than the Gerber plotter: It can only move to a new position, drill a hole or change the drill. Because of that a Excellon file consists largely of only drill-positions (mill, milli-inches) and occasionally a drill-change command. Like Gerber Files, most Excellon files do not tell the machine the width of the selected drill but rather a number pointing into a table of drills. You must provide this table also using the EEWINPLT.DAT file.


Author contact

If you want to contact me for questions on the program, comments (see Program History), registration  or anything else these are my adresses:

CompuServe:	100140,3711	Prefered method!

Internet:	100140.3711@compuserve.com

Mail:	Claus Christensen
Postbox 611 132
D-22437 Hamburg
Germany

Telephone:	+49-40-559-4921	Think of that time-difference! I'm living in Europe!


Shareware Registration

About Shareware

The shareware distribution method is an innovative way to market - and obtain! - exciting new software.  Users like yourself are given the opportunity to test-drive software for free or a nominal disk charge, and independent software companies like us are offered the freedom to publish their software titles with minimal overhead.  Low overhead helps keep prices down and spurs a brand of creativity and dedication found only in the shareware market.

Shareware distribution relies upon the support of those who use shareware programs:  Please feel free to give copies of EEWinPlot to your friends and colleagues.  And if you use EEWinPlot beyond the evaluation period, please register.

Why Register?

Users are granted a license to use this shareware evaluation version of EEWinPlot for a sixty day evaluation period without cost.  After this period, you must either register the program or remove it from your system.  We certainly hope that you will find the program useful and register it!

As a registered user, you will receive...

A license for continued use of EEWinPlot.
A printed manual.
A disk containing: the latest version of EEWinPlot
Unlimited free technical support and customer service through telephone,  CompuServe, and InterNet.
Free updates to version 2.0 release. Minimal disk and shipping charges may apply.  Updates to Subsequent major versions will be available to you at reduced cost.

Please register today and support the further development of EEWinPlot and other PPN shareware products.  The shareware concept can only work with your support.

Please select one of the following topics for more information:

How To Register By CompuServe Shareware Registration

How To Register By Check (Cheque) Or Money Order


File menu
The file menu lets you perform file-related operations like loading a plotfile, printing, and exiting EEWinPlot.


How to register by Compuserve Shareware Registragion
How to register by CompuServe Shareware Registration

Registration Cost: US-$30.00

Registering by CompuServe Shareware Registration is very convenient and easy. Just follow these instructions and the $30 registration fee is charged to your CompuServe Account:

- Execute "GO SWREG"
- Select "Register shareware"
- Select this program by TITLE ("EEWinPlot") or Registration ID (unknown yet)
- Answer Yes when prompted if you want to register
- Answer the questions on your Name and Address

Within 48 hours your registration will be acknowledged by CompuServe mail and the registered package will be on it's way!

Thank you for your support! It is appreciated.


How to register by check
How to register by check or Money Order

Click here to print an order form on your printer.

(If you don't have a printer, please write or type all pertinent information on a piece of paper.)

Registration Cost: US-$30.00
This price includes shipping and handling.

Payment is accepted in U.S. funds or German Mark by check (cheque), money order, postal money order or cash.

Please specify 3.5" or 5.25" diskette.

Please make all checks (cheques) or money orders payable to the Author of this program, "Claus Christensen".

Enclose the proper payment and information and mail to:

Professional Programmers Network
Claus Christensen
Postbox 611 132
D-22437 Hamburg
Germany

Thank you for your support!  It is appreciated!


Registration/Order form
EEWinPlot Registration/Order Form

Disk Format Preferred (Please Check One):

[ ] - 3.5"   [ ] - 5.25"   [ ] - No Preference

Registration Cost: US-$30.00

This price includes shipping and handling.

_____________________________________________________________________
Your Name                                              Your Title (If Applicable)

_____________________________________________________________________
Company Name (If Applicable)       Phone Number

_____________________________________________________________________
Address Line #1

_____________________________________________________________________
Address Line #2

_____________________________________________________________________
Address Line #3

_____________________________________________________________________
City, State/Province, Country      Zip/Postal Code

_____________________________________________________________________
CompuServe, InterNet, Or Other E-Mail Address

_____________________________________________________________________
Where Did You Find EEWinPlot? (Please Be Specific)

Enclose this order form and payment in an envelope and mail to:

Professional Programmers Network
Claus Christensen
Postbox 611 132
D-22437 Hamburg
Germany


Warranty, usage agreement
Warranty, license agreement

EEWinPlot is distributed via the shareware distribution method.  Users are granted a license to use this software for evaluation purposes for a period not to exceed sixty days.  After this period, users must either register (purchase a license for continued use and other benefits) or cease using the software and remove all copies from their system.  More information on registration can be found in the Registration Information section of this file.

SHAREWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT

This is an agreement between you (either an individual or an entity) and the Author of this program, Claus Christensen.  By using or distributing copies of the shareware evaluation version of the EEWinPlot package in any way, you are agreeing to be bound by the terms of this agreement.  If you do not agree to the terms of this agreement, you must cease using or distributing this software immediately.

1) COPYRIGHT:  EEWinPlot is Copyright © 1993 by Claus Christensen

2) LICENSE TO USE:  You may use the shareware evaluation version of EEWinPlot for a period not to exceed sixty (60) days.  If you wish to use it beyond this period, you must register by making the necessary payment to the Author of this program  as outlined elsewhere in this package.

3) DISTRIBUTION:  You are granted a license to copy and distribute the shareware evaluation version of EEWinPlot, provided the EEWinPlot package is not modified or abridged in any way. The Author reserves the right to revoke this license any time for any reasons on short notice.

4) THIS PACKAGE (CONSISTING OF THE EEWINPLOT SOFTWARE AND ASSOCIATED FILES AND DOCUMENTATION) IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT REPRESENTATION OR WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED,  INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO ANY REPRESENTATIONS OR ENDORSEMENTS REGARDING THE USE OF, THE RESULTS OF, OR PERFORMANCE OF; ITS APPROPRIATENESS, ACCURACY, RELIABILITY, OR CURRENTNESS.  THE ENTIRE RISK AS TO THE USE OF THIS PACKAGE IS ASSUMED BY THE USER.  IN NO EVENT WILL THE AUTHOR OF THE PACKAGE OR ITS SUPPLIERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, OR CONSEQUENTIAL, RESULTING FROM ANY DEFECT IN THE PACKAGE, EVEN IF THE AUTHOR OR ITS SUPPLIERS HAVE BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES.  ANY AND ALL USE OF THIS PACKAGE, FOR ANY PURPOSE, WITH NO REGARD TO THE LEGALITY OF SUCH USE OR PURPOSE, IS THE COMPLETE AND SOLE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE USER.

5) GOVERNING LAW:  This agreement shall be governed by the German laws Should any part or parts of this agreement be deemed unlawful, the remainder shall continue to apply.

NOTE:  The registration package sent to registered users includes a software license agreement.  This agreement is similar to the "shrink wrap" agreements found in most software packages distributed through retail channels.  Registered users will have the option of returning the package for a full refund if they do not agree to the terms of that agreement.

ALL TERMS ARE SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT NOTICE.