Etchable PDF top and bottom layers don't match up when printing

[davidperrenoud]

From Istupend...@shaw.ca on August 15, 2012 15:08:01

What steps will reproduce the problem? 1.export pcb in etchable PDF format 2.print the top and bottom copper layers 3.images aren't aligning like they used to before this last update Attach your sketch file and/or custom part files to the bug report. What is the expected output? What do you see instead? both top and bottom copper layers should line up, ie holes match etc but they do not. They seem to be offset by about 1/4 inch. What version of Fritzing are you using? On what operating system? 0.7.7 on Debian Squeeze Please provide any additional information below. scaling seems to be ok, it's just an alignment issue when generating the pdf documents.

I usually print off the etchable pdf documents and do a dry run with my components on the paper (to ensure component legs are correct etc). The images nomally line up perfectly and I get a good 2D image for the PCB that I can mount components to but I can't do that now with this problem.

Attachment: misalign.png

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/fritzing/issues/detail?id=2164

[davidperrenoud]

From irasc...@gmail.com on August 15, 2012 14:35:56

Export etchable pdf appears to line up exactly when I try it under Windows. Can you attach your sketch file so we can look at that? It also would be helpful to have a couple of the exported pdfs. Also what happens if you export to SVG?

[davidperrenoud]

From Istupend...@shaw.ca on August 16, 2012 07:04:45

Here is the sketch file I am using however there are numerous new parts that I created in it so I will attach those as well and a couple of exported pdf's. The exported SVG's seem to be fine and line up correctly, it only seems to be the pdf's that I am having issues with.

Attachment: arduinopwrrelay.fzz VSK-S3-9U.fzpz Wago 740-102.fzpz Wago 740-103.fzpz Wago 740-104.fzpz arduinopwrrelay_etch_silk_top.pdf arduinopwrrelay_etch_copper_top.pdf arduinopwrrelay_etch_copper_bottom.pdf

[davidperrenoud]

From irasc...@gmail.com on August 16, 2012 08:30:39

Thanks for attaching the files.

When I open up the pdfs attached to comment 2 and make them all the same window size and zoom level by maximizing each window, then flip between copper top and copper bottom pdfs, the images (i.e. the through-hole pins and the board outline) are exactly aligned. Silkscreen view alignment is harder to see, but the board outlines seem to align, and the silk-over-copper alignments for Q1-Q3, D1-D3, and R1 - R3 also seem pretty close--certainly nowhere near 1/4 inch off.

Pretty much the same when I look at the pdfs generated here by opening up arduinopwrrelay.fzz and selecting export etchable pdf.

When I "animate" both sets together everything lines up exactly, except there is a vertical shift in R1 . I have no idea what is going on there.

So my question is whether this is a print-time problem rather than a pdf generation problem. I have attached a set of the pdfs generated here. Do you still see the same problem?

Status: Accepted
Owner: irasc...@gmail.com

Attachment: arduionopwrrelay from pc.zip

[davidperrenoud]

From Istupend...@shaw.ca on August 16, 2012 09:48:33

I tried reprinting with your files and the attached file is what I produced. It is a lot better than my original but it is still not perfect.

The only thing that has changed on this end in the last few weeks(since I didn't have this problem) is the two updates to fritzing.

Any ideas?

ps. having a small issue with google code not accepting the save changes button. Willl try to submit this then another with the attachment

[davidperrenoud]

From Istupend...@shaw.ca on August 16, 2012 10:45:36

Hopefully this uploads

Attachment: misalign2.png

[davidperrenoud]

From irasc...@gmail.com on August 16, 2012 13:00:14

Given that the pdf documents you uploaded and the ones I generated from your uploaded fzz file align when I view them here (as PDFs and in the microsoft equivalent of a postscript viewer), and none of them align when you print them there, it seems to me this is either a Qt-level pdf-generation bug (we switched from Qt. 4.8.0 to Qt 4.8.2 in the most recent release), or a problem in some pdf-conversion step under Debian.

In theory, you should be able to swap the Qt libraries from 0.7.5 for the ones from 0.7.7 and Fritzing 0.7.7 will still run. That way you could see whether the 4.8.0-generated PDFs still work.

Checking the other side, is possible for you to print to some format like postscript, rather than going directly to paper (maybe that's what you've already been uploading to the issue tracker). Then you could use some kind of viewing software to look at the result, and maybe this would eliminate some step that is causing the mis-alignment.

[davidperrenoud]

From Istupend...@shaw.ca on August 17, 2012 11:58:06

I tried printing to ps, same issue and I tried multiple old sketches that I didn't have an issue with before. I wouldn't know where to begin to mess with my Qt libraries.

[davidperrenoud]

From Istupend...@shaw.ca on August 17, 2012 12:08:57

Where exactly would I find the 0.7.7 QT libraries? I have the 0.7.5 file downloaded and found those QT files.

[davidperrenoud]

From irasc...@gmail.com on August 17, 2012 14:11:07

We distribute Fritzing with the Qt libraries included. if you have the downloaded versions 0.7.5 and 0.7.7 and extracted them someplace, you will find a folder inside each called "lib". The Qt libraries all have the prefix "libQt" and can be found in that lib folder. In theory, you should be able to swap the qt libs from the 0.7.5 version into the 0.7.7 version. You can check which version of Qt Fritzing is using by opening the about box once you've launched Fritzing. Just below the red Fritzing icon you will see a line that starts with "Version", at the end of the line the Qt version is displayed in square brackets.