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Joerg · Guest

Hello,

Just kicked the tires on gschem, to see if I should switch. Since it
doesn>t look like there will ever be a Windows version I am running it
in VirtualBox on an XP machine. Looks pretty good so far. Anyhow, a
question:

People like me must include schematic excerpts in documents a lot. When
I use the "Write image" export utility it does produce a file I could
then import but the resolution isn>t adequate for a decent quality
document. At large width and height settings it>s actually so chopped up
that parts values cannot be deciphered anymore. In Eagle I could set a
resolution instead of width and height and when set to 300 that produces
a pristine PNG image.

Is that possible in gschem somehow? Or if not are there any plans to
improve the "Write image" routine? Alternatively, is there a trick to
store the whole sheet in a somewhat popular format (preferably not PDF,
PS or EPS) and then use another graphics program to pick out the wanted
piece?

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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Heinz Schmitz · Guest

Joerg wrote:

[quote]People like me must include schematic excerpts in documents a lot. When
I use the "Write image" export utility it does produce a file I could
then import but the resolution isn>t adequate for a decent quality
document.
[/quote]
http://www.geda.seul.org/tools/gschem/#gschem
says, that

# Postscript printing of the schematic is supported
# PNG image writing of the schematic is supported

I would try to create a .PS or .PNG-file, import it into IrfanView
and save it from there in a format I could work on with.

Regards,
H.

Joerg · Guest

Heinz Schmitz wrote:
[quote]Joerg wrote:

People like me must include schematic excerpts in documents a lot. When
I use the "Write image" export utility it does produce a file I could
then import but the resolution isn>t adequate for a decent quality
document.

http://www.geda.seul.org/tools/gschem/#gschem
says, that

# Postscript printing of the schematic is supported
# PNG image writing of the schematic is supported

I would try to create a .PS or .PNG-file, import it into IrfanView
and save it from there in a format I could work on with.

[/quote]
Well, that>s what I tried, image writing to PNG. The result was rather
ugly and at some write sizes plain not readable. EPS was refused by
IrfanView with something like "file contains errors".

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

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Use another domain or send PM.

JeffM · Guest

Joerg wrote:
[quote]Just kicked the tires on gschem, to see if I should switch.
Since it doesn>t look like there will ever be a Windows version...

(At points in the past) I have seen evidence[/quote]
that there were at least 2 "Windoze versions" of the suite.
http://www.google.com/search?q=gEDA+win32.build+OR+win32.port+site:seul.org+-rendering&num=100
(As mentioned in previous threads, the result is a lot of grousing
and bug reports on things that are user errors.)

There _are_ currently Windows versions out there running.
What there _isn>t_ is a "Windoze installer".
Each Windoze user has to *compile* executables for himself.
As that weeds out a lot of the folks who have low software skills,
it minimizes the occurances of Clueless Windoze User Syndrome.

[quote]...I am running it in VirtualBox on an XP machine.

As the elements of the gEDA suite are written as Unix apps,[/quote]
there will always need to be
an intermediate layer at *some* point in the process
--even if what you want to end up with
are **native** Windoze-compatible executables.
http://www.google.com/search?q=build.gEDA+Cygwin+-have-not&filter=0&num=100

So, how is the speed with your level of horsepower?

DJ Delorie · Guest

Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:
[quote]Well, that>s what I tried, image writing to PNG. The result was
rather ugly and at some write sizes plain not readable. EPS was
refused by IrfanView with something like "file contains errors".
[/quote]
A quick check of their website leads to this question... Do you have
ghostscript installed? IrfanView "supports" eps by having ghostscript
convert it to a raster, which will make it ugly again.

What I recommend is exporting EPS and converting it to PDF, then use
acroread to view/print it.

Or I use ghostscript convert the EPS to an anti-aliased PNG, which
results in better quality than gschem>s default PNG exporter.

Joerg · Guest

DJ Delorie wrote:
[quote]Joerg <notthisjoergsch@removethispacbell.net> writes:
Well, that>s what I tried, image writing to PNG. The result was
rather ugly and at some write sizes plain not readable. EPS was
refused by IrfanView with something like "file contains errors".

A quick check of their website leads to this question... Do you have
ghostscript installed? IrfanView "supports" eps by having ghostscript
convert it to a raster, which will make it ugly again.

[/quote]
I think it>s GSView what I>d really need.

[quote]What I recommend is exporting EPS and converting it to PDF, then use
acroread to view/print it.

[/quote]
Well, I don>t need to read/print but folks like me must often include
snippets and complete pages of schematics in Word documents, usually as
figures with captions. Mostly to explain circuitry to folks who won>t
understand it by just looking at the schematic.

[quote]Or I use ghostscript convert the EPS to an anti-aliased PNG, which
results in better quality than gschem>s default PNG exporter.
[/quote]

Some friends in a German NG convinced me to give Linux a shot and
coached me a bit through the maze of VirtualBox and Ubuntu, then gschem.
So I poked around a bit after evince didn>t work and, tada, found that
Gimp (which comes with the distro as default) does the job nicely. So
it>ll go like this:

gschem write image to EPS format. EPS into Gimp (takes a while), set to
300dpi, cut unwanted areas, store as PNG file. Import PNG file into Word
document. A bit cumbersome but that produces an acceptable quality,
quite comparable to Eagle schematic exports :-)

I don>t know squat about programming but if you guys ever think of
improving this export feature maybe a lot of the work can be reduced by
using code parts from Gimp so that gschem can do a straight write as a
300dpi (or even selectable resolution) PNG file.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.

Joerg · Guest

JeffM wrote:
[quote]Joerg wrote:
Just kicked the tires on gschem, to see if I should switch.
Since it doesn>t look like there will ever be a Windows version...

(At points in the past) I have seen evidence
that there were at least 2 "Windoze versions" of the suite.
http://www.google.com/search?q=gEDA+win32.build+OR+win32.port+site:seul.org+-rendering&num=100
(As mentioned in previous threads, the result is a lot of grousing
and bug reports on things that are user errors.)

There _are_ currently Windows versions out there running.
What there _isn>t_ is a "Windoze installer".
Each Windoze user has to *compile* executables for himself.
As that weeds out a lot of the folks who have low software skills,
it minimizes the occurances of Clueless Windoze User Syndrome.

[/quote]
That pretty much excludes me as well. I am most certainly not a
programmer but know CAD quite well.

[quote]...I am running it in VirtualBox on an XP machine.

As the elements of the gEDA suite are written as Unix apps,
there will always need to be
an intermediate layer at *some* point in the process
--even if what you want to end up with
are **native** Windoze-compatible executables.
http://www.google.com/search?q=build.gEDA+Cygwin+-have-not&filter=0&num=100

So, how is the speed with your level of horsepower?
[/quote]

Well, it>s so so. It>s ok but not quite as snappy as Cadsoft Eagle. But
Eagle doesn>t have a hierarchical sheet structures so what can ya do?

Right now Ubuntu forgets the links to the LAN server every time I power
it down. Hopefully I>ll figure that out one of these days but it>s only
a minute to re-install that in the morning.

--
Regards, Joerg

http://www.analogconsultants.com/

"gmail" domain blocked because of excessive spam.
Use another domain or send PM.


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