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Electronics Forum / CAD / December 2004Easy-PC to Circuitmaker Conversion
A very, very long time ago, I bought the original DOS version of Easy-PC out of an ad in Ham Radio magazine. With all respect to the current product, that old DOS sucker was about the buggiest thing this side of Microsoft. At any rate, the LAST board I laid out in the Easy-PC is about at the end of it's mercifully long (20 years or so) life but I need a few dozen more boards to match up with a few hundred dollars worth of metalwork so as not to waste metal. The PC board house that made the last run of boards told me that this was the end, that they couldn't set up for photo negatives any more. The old DOS program will NOT run under Windoze, no how, no way, no sir. I've tried every trick I know of and it still jams on loadup (even AFTER I get it out of its original 5" floppy format). However, the trial version of Easy-PC 8 loads the old board just fine. The only problem is that it will give me a PRINT version only, no Gerbers. My current PC board house can only work from gerbers -- they put their camera into storage ten years or so ago. The point being: 1. Does anybody have a version of Easy-PC that gives gerbers/NC files and would be willing to do a quick import and export of files for me? I promise, no more requests if I can get this one job done. 2. Failing that, does anybody have an old legal copy of Easy-PC that they would be willing to sell me for a reasonable price? 3. Failing that, does anybody have a way of translating Easy-PC files to Protel/Traxmaker so that I can generate the gerbers myself? Traxmaker says "TraxMaker can import Protel Text PCB files directly, allowing you to use all or part of board designs produced in Protel's Advanced PCB2 and Advanced PCB3 products. Once in TraxMaker, these board designs can be modified and saved as a TraxMaker PCB file or a Protel Text PCB file." Jim > The old DOS program will NOT run under Windoze, no how, no way, no sir. > I've tried every trick I know of and it still jams on loadup (even AFTER I [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > only work from gerbers -- they put their camera into storage ten years or so > ago. Hi Jim, You probably don't know this, but every pc that will run any flavor of windoze will boot up under good old dos just fine. Boot up your pc under your old dos disks, and run your version of PCB program from there. If by some strange chance you don't have any dos boot disks, you can download a free copy of "freedos" and I am sure it will work just fine. -Chuck You can create a DOS boot disk in windows XP. But just make sure you don't need any USB peripherals, like a USB mouse. Hope you still have a FAT partition ;) Cheers > > The old DOS program will NOT run under Windoze, no how, no way, no sir. > > I've tried every trick I know of and it still jams on loadup (even AFTER I [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > -Chuck But you don't understand. The old DOS program will only output a printer file that is intended to go to a camera for photo shooting. Nobody any more takes camera art and shoots it to make boards. Everybody wants gerbers/NC. The old DOS program will NOT output gerbers/NC. I need a translation from this old DOS program to gerbers/NC for a lousy couple of dozen boards. Jim Hi JW, >I need a translation from this old DOS program to gerbers/NC for a lousy >couple of dozen boards. > If all other attempts fail maybe you could print it out on a very good printer, then scan it back into a program that can store the file in a format that board fab houses accept. Just give the board fab a ring and see if they'd accept HPGL, DXF or some other popular format that a graphics program can generate. I don't know whether there are Gerber converter programs that could spit out Gerber from a scanned file but it wouldn't surprise me if such software exists. Else you could talk to a board fab outside the US, maybe in a country where hi-tech isn't as advanced as here. Chances are, they might still have their cameras. Regards, Joerg http://www.analogconsultants.com On Sun, 26 Dec 2004 18:27:50 -0800, "RST Engineering \(jw\)" <jim@rstengineering.com> wrote: >But you don't understand. The old DOS program will only output a printer >file that is intended to go to a camera for photo shooting. Nobody any more [quoted text clipped - 5 lines] > >Jim Some time ago, on a Protel mailing list, someone posted a link to a company that could convert films to Gerber - unfortunately, I saved the post at work, and I'm off work til after new years - I'll try to remember this, and post the info then... A quick Google for "convert film to gerber" led to this list: Applied Cam Engineering 545 West Lambert Rd Brea Ca. 92621 Internet: eshea@bluegrn.COM Modem: +714.529-7313 Voice: +714.529-1553 FAX: +714.529-4202 Edward G. Shea Artnet Technology Inc. 2109 O'Toole Ave. Suite G San Jose, CA Phone: (408) 954-8383 Fax: (408) 954-8380 Custom Photo & Design 340 Qinnipiac St. Bldg 35 Wallingford, CT 06492 phone: (203)-265-4479 Ray Long fax: (203)-284-8740 ========================================= I have used this one with success. Infinite Graphics Minneapolis, MN (612) 721-6283 Ron Videen ========================================= Infinite Technologies Inc. 17332 Von Karman Ave. #145 Irvine, CA Phone: (714) 975-0765 Fax: (714) 975-0601 Merriwether Circuit Design, Inc 40 Hill Ave. Fort Walton Beach, FL 32548 Phone: (904) 243-8144 Fax: (904) 243-9455 Phototool Engineering Chelmsford, MA has a scanning system from ScanCAD 508-256-8530 Mark Devereaux ScanCad International Denver 303-986-7707  SignaturePeter Bennett, VE7CEI peterbb4 (at) interchange.ubc.ca new newsgroup users info : http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq GPS and NMEA info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter Vancouver Power Squadron: http://vancouver.powersquadron.ca > But you don't understand. The old DOS program will only output a printer > file that is intended to go to a camera for photo shooting. Nobody any more [quoted text clipped - 3 lines] > I need a translation from this old DOS program to gerbers/NC for a lousy > couple of dozen boards. Is it out of the question to just have a negative shot and make the boards yourself? I laid out a little circuit by hand once, and took the tapes (2-sided, with extra register marks) to a photoshop - nothing to do with electronics - and they printed them 6-up for me; I got a Radio Schlock sensitized board and etched it myself and cut it up. A little piece of #30 wire-wrap wire can substitute for plated-thru holes. Or, find a retro board house. ;-) Good Luck! Rich >A very, very long time ago, I bought the original DOS version of Easy-PC >out of an ad in Ham Radio magazine. With all respect to the current [quoted text clipped - 21 lines] > would be willing to do a quick import and export of files for me? I > promise, no more requests if I can get this one job done. I've got the latest version of Easy-PC. I'll generate the Gerbers for you if you email them to me. Leon SignatureLeon Heller, G1HSM leon.heller@dsl.pipex.com You've got it, and many thanks for your help. BTW, how do you like Easy-PC. I hate to throw away six years of building a library for Circuitmaker, but it looks like Protel is doing their best to kill the sucker off. If I hadn't been a beta tester for Microcode back in the old days and been given a free production copy, I sure as hell wouldn't have purchased that piece of trash. Jim > I've got the latest version of Easy-PC. I'll generate the Gerbers for you > if you email them to me. > > Leon > You've got it, and many thanks for your help. BTW, how do you like > Easy-PC. I hate to throw away six years of building a library for [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > given a free production copy, I sure as hell wouldn't have purchased that > piece of trash. I used Easy-PC for years from when it first came out (Customer Number 13114). WestDev bought Number One when it eventually went bust, noticed that I was the longest-serving original customer and asked me if I would be interested in beta-testing their new Pulsonix software. They recently gave me a copy of the latest Easy-PC V8 to try out and I was quite impressed with it. I much prefer Pulsonix, of course. Leon I think I may have you beat. My original DOS copy was on a 5" floppy and the label on the disk itself was done with a dot matrix printer. I don't remember whether or not I kept either the serial or my customer number, as I was NOT particularly impressed with Dos version 1.0 or whatever it was. Jim > I used Easy-PC for years from when it first came out (Customer Number > 13114). WestDev bought Number One when it eventually went bust, noticed [quoted text clipped - 4 lines] > > Leon |
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