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Forum Index : PCB Manufacturing : Library completely empty a bit confusing
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plover Guru  Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
Chopperp Oooops, your message got drowned out by my voluminous posts. I almost missed it. I can confirm that I got the same message when I checked. Perhaps he will pop up again, may be a glitch in the groups admin. You can try the feedback mechanism on the website, I have not learned enough about DEX yet to want to use that. While the program is driving me up the wall I recognise it as brilliant piece of software. I was an early follower of Protel to just about the time it became Altium, when I bailed out it was now so big I recognised it was easily a full time job to be able to take full advantage. Not a job for retirement. A former assistant of mine did Mil spec layout using I think it was Protel 99SE, I have actually inherited his box of software and can watch it from where I am sitting. He was given and Altium upgrade but here he also bailed out, not for one man band operations. Well I said I had bailed out of Protel and I did not think I would ever get back into needing to use layout work. Rather suddenly things changed and I offered to help out with some special power supply development. I am now getting a bit concerned I have over estimated my ability. Anyway I owe Bigmik my gratitude because his enthusiasm for DEX just kept my interest alive. Actually plowing through some of his parts got me into 3D, I found a few parts that were odd and great exercises to find out why and how to correct. With the 3D operation it would be a piece of cake, but with no 'proper' 3D I do not find it a piece of cake any longer. I have to figure out the 3D. I am going to dig out one of my Laptops running Windows 7 and check the older version of DEX I have there and see if that solves the 'mouse' problem. The VBos guest Win7 under PCLinuxOS is a bit unknown to me. By the way are you using DEX at all? If so at what level? |
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Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1057 |
Hi Plover You're forgiven  I only use DEX for rough schematics & then only using using Art stuff as using real components causes to many problem. Far too much of a learning curve for me. Wouldn't use it enough to remember how to do layouts anyway but it does look interesting. See if Bigmick replies re link Thanks ChopperP |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
ChopperP Thanks, I understand perfectly. I am now very aware that when people suggest you just get so and so program "it is easy" to do whatever but very often said with hindsight and the learning curve forgotten. Rough Schematics is one area where I was aiming, I have to exchange ideas with people in Europe and while back of an envelope may suffice, a rough schematic is well worth it because the end product will be something that need to be done anyway. I have just installed very late version of DEX on a laptop, I find it hard to believe there is no library. Crumbs what on earth is going on. Getting a new version from the website. |
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disco4now Guru Joined: 18/12/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 896 |
Latest on the Forum is that Google group is gone and Forum will continue in present form at http://www.forum.dexpcb.com/ which you can get from Help panel in DEX. Not sure how you get an invitation, maybe get an existing member to ask on your behalf, I think Mick got me on some time ago. Regards Gerry Latest F4 Latest H7 |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
Installed a DEX instance on Laptop apart from an odd delay finding the Library components it works. So all Windows users not likely to have my 3D problems. This indicates it possibly is a VirtualBox VM problem. disco4now Thanks for information, I gave up when I was met with the 'Invitation' and no description of how to get such one. Do you know if it an active forum? |
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bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Hi Chopper, All, It looks like Iliya changed it back to the old one.. I dont know why but I changed all of my links and now google groups is defunct..  The original group location is still active.. DEX Forum Regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Hi Plover, I am sorry I havent replied to some of your issues but the truth is I have no idea.. I do not use 3D in the `generic' form of building my parts.. I only ever download my 3D images from 3DContent Central and Traceparts.. Just about all possible parts are available in 3D from those 2 sites.. Also realise please that I am just another user of DEX.. I have no association with them in any other way except that I am a registered user. I do like DEX, but it does have a few/lot of `funnies' that occur and I believe that many of these are due to the constant daily updates.. I may have to totally unistall and reinstall to see if some of these issues cease. The 3D disappearing is weird, I have discovered that if I add another 3D image to my part then BOTH the existing (That I couldnt see) and the new image are visible, if I then delete the new 3D image the original is back again.. Grrr. I am a long time user of Protel99SE myself and it had its own idiosyncrasies.. but then Protel cost my company $4000 back in 1998 and now 20 years later you can get DEX for about $50-70AU.... Value for money is hard to beat.. This thing that I had to learn was that I was trying to force DEX to do things the way `I' wanted/thought they should be done, once I started realising that whilst it looked like Protel (the reason I bought it in the first place) it ISNT Protel and has its own way of working then things started being a lot easier. I wouldnt put much faith in the 109,000 parts library as these have been ported over from eagle and other PCB programs and many parts have errors that can ruin your party.. Things such as hole sizes too small (cant fit your header in).. My parts were created with an earlier version and something has happened and many of my 3D images have moved altered, a lot of my parts are now not needed as DEX has added more parametric 3D to the program itself (my headers for instance). The 3D in many of my parts now look messed up but at least the important thing (physical pad and hole sizes/locations) are correct. One day I will revisit all of my parts and repackage them. Regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| Chopperp Guru Joined: 03/01/2018 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1057 |
Yep, found this:- Iliya May 5 I have deleted the Google group. I don't think there is a need for it. I apologise for those who joined. I actually registered a good while ago. Found correct email address by trial & error. Forgot password though. Reset ok. ChopperP |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
Hi Mick, The 3D I was going to dispense with at this stage where I am just trying to up and running reasonably solid but I got a bit too inquisitive when I noticed how simple the 3D looked in one of the Videos, a lot like my big Linux mechanical engineering packaged a I bought some years ago for another Job, that was alo hard until I got to a level where I could use it. Linux based as well. Yes I did notice in earlier threads you mentioned getting parts from other sources, I thought that was a bit too advanced for me at this stage but now I getting good idea even of the 3D parts I must visit that option. My latest problem with the half working 3D space operations I have proved was because of the VBox VM where I run Win7, I know just enough to keep in mind there is often problems getting configurations right. I will show a bit more about this here but take the problem to VBox Forum as soon as I can get details collected, they seem to be up front telling you if you have not done your homework but also can sort things out. I think I have DEX running on a small Laptop but not sure how well yet apart from it responds well in the 3D graphics area. So I will finish up graphics in that area and then hope eventually get it sorted out under Linux. What I have collected of your parts, I did try to unzip them yesterday and keep the directories, built a directory tree and placed that in the Library directory. I had not had any problem doing this so far with smaller number. What happened was the library it started doing multiple directories so I think I have 4 times as many as I should have. Not sure what happened because I only found out when I thought the library was getting a bit slow. Then I noticed repeats in sub-directories. I was using a new file manager in Windows with dual panes, not really familar with it so I blame it on the use of that. I do like having two panes side by side and then just drag files between them. About the frequent updates yes that is a concern because which version should one mark as a stable version. So far I have not had to go back and check out earlier versions, it was getting close. Not clear what is new in the updates but guess there is a place where one can find out. I am trying to sign up on the 'old site' and have got to the stage of confirming my email address. |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
I may go a bit quiet here as I have joined up on Dex forum and trying to find my feet there |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
I was searching the forum for some DEX information and came here. Whilst I recognised the material unfortunately I had also forgotten the content in details. Anyway, will leave a question here about DEX versions around 850-854, when right clicking in schmeatic I now get this wheel full of options. It is interesting but when you are used to the old rectangular drop down box it is a pain as many important commands are no further out of reach. Am I the only one having this wheel show up? If anyone know how to go back to rectangular drop box I would like to know. (no-one commented on DEX forum yet after a few days) ------------------------------------------- I am cleaning up my Library which got in a big mess when I started adding my own parts. As I am in the process of setting up a new hard disk dedicated to DEX work I am taking the opportunity to look at the Library arrangement, it beats me. Perhaps I have made some mistake long ago and totally forgotten. Was reminded when bigmik posetd this picture on page one in this topic explaining where library path is::  As I understand the default library path: C:\Users\Aurak\AppData\Roaming\AutoTRAX Software\DEX\Library In this case Aurak is the user account, me I have stored all my own parts on a USB drive ready to move to another pc, I decided to point the Library Link to this drive which in this case is E: and the Library panel is empty. I few choice swear word in my mind now, to be double sure I have just tested setting the link again, now it works. Several times previously it just did not work, I could not make head or tails of it.I now realise there may be a problem with this library pointing, perhaps intermittent. I will see when I get the new hard drive running.  Notice the link setting, and I still have the default library setting showing (have refreshed to update)Next step is rather worrying, I save my screen cuts to the normal ""MyPictures"" directory. When I went to get the following picture showed, ie now DEX library is linked to the "Pictures" ???  Notice the top of pictures says ""2 locations"" which I think means that fumble fingers here have managed to set up a "Linked directory system" whatever that means. I fortuetously have been setting the new hard drive up in such a way that tha Big DATA partion will also hold my "user details/downloads etc, like Documents, downloads, pictures etc. Setting up Linked libraries seems to be the safest way for less experienced windows users to get the user data off the system drive. Crossing my fingers but the irritating thing is that I have not knowingly linked any directories on this old hard drive I am working with right now. |
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| bigmik Guru Joined: 20/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 2914 |
Hi Plover, To swap back to rectangular right clicks go to the SETTINGS and under the APPLICATION keytab find the setting called RADIAL MENU and toggle this to FALSE. Kind Regards, Mick Mick's uMite Stuff can be found >>> HERE (Kindly hosted by Dontronics) <<< |
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| plover Guru Joined: 18/04/2013 Location: AustraliaPosts: 302 |
Hi bigmik, Thank you very much indeed, what a bummer when I saw the location I knew it was me having made a blunder. I remember going throug lots of setting after an update when for some reason ""Settings" happen to have unfurled itself, when closing each item I change a few as I was going. I vaguely remember that I did not work out what that radial meant and by the time the wheel popped up I was convinced that it was something that had changed with the update, did not give it a second thought. Here I was thinking I was just about familiar with most corners of DEX, what a delusion. Well I am just about to take a copy of DEX and my home made parts and a copy of your header parts to the new hard drive. Do it quick check out and then no more DEX for tonight. ------------------------------------------------------- The Library problem mention not far above, has been solved and I think I understand now how it works. The default library will always show up but if you add your own library it will be added. You add one directory, plus sub directories as needed. Whatever is installed here can then be added to DEX operation by pointing to the entry directory. My problem was working on cleaning up and not completely focused so I copied files wrongly when I consolidated my files. The result was I ended up with my directories mixed up with the default ones which I did not want, becomes chaotic. |
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