×
INTELLIGENT WORK FORUMS
FOR ENGINEERING PROFESSIONALS

Log In

Come Join Us!

Are you an
Engineering professional?
Join Eng-Tips Forums!
  • Talk With Other Members
  • Be Notified Of Responses
    To Your Posts
  • Keyword Search
  • One-Click Access To Your
    Favorite Forums
  • Automated Signatures
    On Your Posts
  • Best Of All, It's Free!
  • Students Click Here

*Eng-Tips's functionality depends on members receiving e-mail. By joining you are opting in to receive e-mail.

Posting Guidelines

Promoting, selling, recruiting, coursework and thesis posting is forbidden.

Students Click Here

Jobs

Switching Gaps

Switching Gaps

Switching Gaps

(OP)
I'm a draftsman.  I write some very heavy LISP programs for the manufacutring company I work for.

Currently, I am working with coupling boards for ceramic RF mircorwave filters.

The current itteration of my program inserts the original drawing into a specified place to make an array from it.

I am curious to know, if there is a way to get it to switch where the squares are drawn.

Here's what I mean by that, the coupling boards appear as a series of squares of equal height but varying width and varying distance inbetween.  When the block is inserted, the squares represent the copper flashing on the coupling board, but I need to edit it so that the spaces *between* the the copper flashing are the squares that are seen.

I've been doing this mainly with a mix of LISP and manual manipulation, but I'd like to know if anyone knows how to grap the proper points and redraw/edit the squares as I need them to be edited (EACH board is massively different, but are all sets of squares)

RE: Switching Gaps

It's hard to visualize what you're doing without
the codes and the drawing. Are you trying to determine
the insert point of each arrayed block to be used as a
basis for revising the boards?

RE: Switching Gaps

(OP)
The blocks are going to be inserted into an array.  They'll then be modified to be sent out for a positive photoplot.

The enclosed polylines will come back dark and anywhere it's dark will remove copper from the material during the photo-etching process.


To get an idea of what one of our boards looks like, draw a series of same height boards with an arbitrary distance between them.

What I need to do, is select this series of squares, and have it reverse the image (where there are spaces between the squares, turn into the squares, and erase the previous squares).

The code itself is just an insertion program right now.  I need to write the editing portion, and am unsure how to go about it.  Well...I could....but it'd be messy, and VERY long grabbing x,y coordinates from a series of lines automatically.

RE: Switching Gaps

(OP)
I just realized I still didn't elaborate enough.

The squares of the same height, are in line with one another from left to right.

Perfectly in line.  They will be cut out with a saw, which again forces them to be of identical height.

The width of the squares from left to right varies, and the spacing from one square to the next also varies from square to square and from drawing to drawing.

The space inbetween where the squares are currently drawn, is what I need to be turned into squares.  And be rid of the old squares.

If anyone needs a visual, I can send a jpeg via email to them for better clarification.  I don't know if this site holds my email in my profile, so here it is: jguy@klmicrowave.com

Red Flag This Post

Please let us know here why this post is inappropriate. Reasons such as off-topic, duplicates, flames, illegal, vulgar, or students posting their homework.

Red Flag Submitted

Thank you for helping keep Eng-Tips Forums free from inappropriate posts.
The Eng-Tips staff will check this out and take appropriate action.

Reply To This Thread

Posting in the Eng-Tips forums is a member-only feature.

Click Here to join Eng-Tips and talk with other members!


Resources