pcb-rnd knowledge pool
How to configure cam jobs
| cam_conf by Tibor 'Igor2' Palinkas on 2018-07-14 | Tags: howto, cam, export, job, jobs, config, configure |
Abstract: Demonstrate how to configure new export jobs in the cam plugin. Covers both technical aspects and practical tips on creating vendor job configs that can be shared with other users.
Where to put the configuration
The usual config rules apply; since jobs are stored in a list, the subtree defining them can benefit from prepend or append. If there are multiple jobs with the same name, cam will pick the first (so prepend is higher prio than append).
The easiest way is to create a cam.conf file under ~/.pcb-rnd/ - this will be an user level configuration. Of course the same can be achieved by writing the cam subtree in the plugins section of ~/.pcb-rnd/pcb-conf.lht
The next level is including the same subtree in the config section of a project file.
It is also possible to embed the job in board file (cam configuration is at the end of the file).
How to share cam configs
The best is to place a single cam script in a cam.conf that can be used as an user config. It is also best practice to include one or more detailed desc lines in the config.
Known bugs in old versions
Old versions of pcb-rnd, e.g. 2.2.0, do not load ~/.pcb-rnd/cam.conf if cam is compiled as dynamic loaded plugin. The solution is to use a recent version (this bug is not present in 3.1.0). If that's not possible, recompile with the cam module built in instead of plugin. If that's not possible either, run pcb-rnd as
pcb-rnd -C ~/.pcb-rnd/cam.conf