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NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming

Views: 9182

I am a new user to the topaz-x machine. At my new current po... - Sep 18, 2008 by sny  

What pattern programming utility do you have, or do you have... - Sep 18, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

> What pattern programming utility do you have, or >... - Sep 18, 2008 by sny  

Not that trying to sell anything, but Valors new vPlan syste... - Sep 19, 2008 by josh  

Assembleon/Philips has their own offline programming softwar... - Sep 19, 2008 by MikeS  

> Assembleon/Philips has their own offline > program... - Sep 19, 2008 by sny  

Assembleon also has another much less sophisticated programm... - Sep 21, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

"Not that trying to sell anything,..." Forgive me if I'm ... - Sep 22, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

Right, you have to export to txt and import from txt. Expor... - Sep 22, 2008 by MikeS  

What is BS ? I am not trying to sell - up to each person to ... - Sep 22, 2008 by josh  

My point is that the only contributions I've ever seen you m... - Sep 22, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

THe software i am using at my company is cad2cad. I uploaded... - Sep 22, 2008 by sny  

If you like I can email you a portion of our programming pro... - Sep 23, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

that would be great steve! I have been using the cad2cad pro... - Sep 23, 2008 by sny  

You'd still have to change all of the part library reference... - Sep 23, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

anything works...thanks! so how do i even start writing a p... - Sep 23, 2008 by sny  

You'll have to get the cad data from someone, format it so t... - Sep 23, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

the guy that previous did the programs does not work here an... - Sep 23, 2008 by sny  

"He just knows how to give me deadlines on when i should lea... - Sep 23, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

email sent! how did everyone else here learn how to program ... - Sep 23, 2008 by sny  

Hi, here's my 2 cents sir: You need.. a) The Gerber... - Sep 23, 2008 by smt_guy  

hey steve, thanks for that document, it helps a lot! is th... - Sep 24, 2008 by sny  

Check your email! ... - Sep 24, 2008 by Steve Thomas  

I hope this doesn't add any confusion. I save my data as a .... - Sep 26, 2008 by Kevslatvin  

does anyone know how to create blocks for PCBs that are pane... - Sep 29, 2008 by sny  

What the other user was talking about is correct, converting... - Nov 29, 2008 by Air M  

Can someone tell me where I can get the Cad2Cad software? ... - Jan 20, 2009 by bskepnek  

I got mine from the Assembleon sales rep. It was free so I w... - Jan 22, 2009 by Kevslatvin  

I got mine from my used equipment broker, and it was version... - Jan 22, 2009 by Steve Thomas  

Hi, Any suggestions how to interpret the program for Phil... - Apr 01, 2010 by mabdalla  


sny

#56577

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 18 September, 2008

I am a new user to the topaz-x machine. At my new current position, there is not really any formal training on this device since it is a small private company. Does anybody know where i can start learning how to program this device? The manual doesn't make it crisp and clear. The files we use at my company is gerber and I want to learn how to convert that to excel and then to the Topaz-x. If anyone can be of any assistence, it would be much appreciated.

thank you

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56578

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 18 September, 2008

What pattern programming utility do you have, or do you have one at all?

reply »


sny

#56579

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 18 September, 2008

> What pattern programming utility do you have, or > do you have one at all?

As of now i do not have one at all. I am still training at this company before i actually do some programming. From what i understand, the customer gives our company a gerber file and we have to convert that to make it work in the topaz-x machine. I do not know where to even start. This seems to be the most useful site so far.

thank you

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josh

#56591

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 19 September, 2008

Not that trying to sell anything, but Valors new vPlan system is a scalable software that can read gerbers and other CAM/CAD formats, can extract component positions, add polarities prepare job with BOM import, verify CAD to BOM and generate Topax-X files either basic output to optimised output...all in one package.... just a thought...costs some money but from my experience software can make you machine investment run faster earlier and start making some money !!!

reply »


MikeS

#56598

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 19 September, 2008

Assembleon/Philips has their own offline programming software (PPS Gemline) to take you from CAD (they should have a gerber utility) to machine program. A lower cost aproach is something like GC-Preview with the "Plus" option to extract centroids, then Excel. At one point (pre -X generation) they had an Excel based app. that would import centroid and output FTIP files for optimization in the machine. The manual deals mainly with programming on the machine.

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sny

#56608

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 19 September, 2008

> Assembleon/Philips has their own offline > programming software (PPS Gemline) to take you > from CAD (they should have a gerber utility) to > machine program. A lower cost aproach is > something like GC-Preview with the "Plus" option > to extract centroids, then Excel. At one point > (pre -X generation) they had an Excel based app. > that would import centroid and output FTIP files > for optimization in the machine. The manual deals > mainly with programming on the machine.

So the only way fir my text file to work is if it gets converted to a vios text file before it gets uploaded to the machine correct?

thanks!

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56616

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 21 September, 2008

Assembleon also has another much less sophisticated programming utility (Cad2Cad) that at one time was a free of charge downloadable thing. I got it from the broker I bought our used machine from.

I get that you are new with this equipment, but is this a new machine for your company? If not, what have they been using?

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56618

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 September, 2008

"Not that trying to sell anything,..."

Forgive me if I'm wrong here, but I'm gonna call BS.

I can't search the archives by poster author, but if I search vplan your name pops up as the originator on almost all of them. I can't remember you talking about anything else, either.

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MikeS

#56633

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 September, 2008

Right, you have to export to txt and import from txt. Export a working program and you'll see the program structure - fids, blocks, x/y/theta/partnumber, vision info associated with it. Doing this in Excel is....tedious. You don't need to go to text to do a backup or copy between machines if they're not networked.

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josh

#56634

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 September, 2008

What is BS ? I am not trying to sell - up to each person to take look...just highlighting as possible solution.

I just wanted to highlight should take a look at vPlan as possible solution - of course many ways to skin a cat. I have worked in CAD-CAM conversion to production are for many years for different machines , vPlan is not perfect, no software is, but is pretty comprehensive to remove manual, semi manual CAD/CAM-BOM to SMT processing....

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56635

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 September, 2008

My point is that the only contributions I've ever seen you make on this site are to recommend that product, and you've done it quite regularly. It looks to me like trying to sell product is exACTly what you're doing.

reply »


sny

#56636

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 September, 2008

THe software i am using at my company is cad2cad. I uploaded a working program and i was able to see the program. I thought it would just be a bunch of x,y coordinates, but it is more confusing than i thought. Does anyone have any idea where i can start learning the commands? here is a portion of what i up loaded... "PCBNAME=testing_txt &I.TYPE=MCX &I.COMMENT=Philips_EMT_bv &I.EXEC=000001010100000000000000000009 &I.TRNS=020001010000000000000000000000 &I.COND=020000000100000101010101010000 &I.NZL =0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 End_of_ID &B.BAD &B.DSP &B.DSM &B.DSL &B.DSC &B.FID &B.MNT "

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56650

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

If you like I can email you a portion of our programming procedure. We also use Cad2Cad, although we have a Topaz, not a Topaz-X.

reply »


sny

#56653

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

that would be great steve! I have been using the cad2cad program to get familiar with it. Here is another stupid question. Lets say that i get a new board to program, can't i just use a previous board on cad2cad and just change/del/add the coordinates and marks? If that is possible, how would i change the pcb board size and marks? on the actual topaz machine itself (when i upload it)?

thanks!

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56655

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

You'd still have to change all of the part library references, make up new ones for new parts, enter feeder sizes, etc. More trouble than it's worth, once you know how to use the software and prep your cad data to be compatible with it.

There are lots of locations in that data that at first glance mean nothing to you but mean everything to the machine and you'd spend more time tweaking than it would take to just take your cad data, strip out what cad2cad doesn't need, and process the data.

My procedure is written in Word2003. Will that work for you?

reply »


sny

#56657

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

anything works...thanks! so how do i even start writing a program from scratch? i have no idea what the data means, so there would be no way i would even attempt to write one.

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56658

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

You'll have to get the cad data from someone, format it so that cad2cad can read it, import it into cad2cad, let cad2cad do it's thing, and then export the results into the machine.

This procedure was written by me for people that know a little already, so it may take some tweaking and practice on your part to get used to it.

Question, though...is there some reason that they haven't given you a clue already? You're not going to sabotage all of their programs and jump ship, are you? :P

reply »


sny

#56659

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

the guy that previous did the programs does not work here anymore, so i was the person that they elected to start learning. i wouldn't even know how to sabotage their programs! haha. My supervisor is helping me out, but he does not know much about programming either. He just knows how to give me deadlines on when i should learn this.

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56660

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

"He just knows how to give me deadlines on when i should learn this."

That's one talent all managers seem to share. ;)

Can you email me (via the smtnet link) your email address? I don't think I can attach a document from in this system and I don't want to paste in 8 pages of text either.

reply »


sny

#56661

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

email sent! how did everyone else here learn how to program the topaz x? how do you know what to put where::?

any help is much appreciated

reply »


smt_guy

#56663

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 23 September, 2008

Hi,

here's my 2 cents sir:

You need..

a) The Gerber Data and the BOM b) Extract the XY CAD from the GERBER and build what they call Centroid Data. Save this in text format. c) Use Cad2Cad to import the centroid data and save it as Philips VIOS txt file or Philips FTIP v2 File (you need GemPPS to import and export this to VIOS. d) Save in Floppy then import from the machine.

reply »


sny

#56672

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 24 September, 2008

hey steve, thanks for that document, it helps a lot! is there a way you can send me a sample of how the .txt or .xls file is supposed to look like in order for it to be loaded into cad2cad? im not sure how it is supposed to look like. if you can that would be great!

thanks

reply »


Steve Thomas

#56673

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 24 September, 2008

Check your email!

reply »


Kevslatvin

#56710

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 26 September, 2008

I hope this doesn't add any confusion. I save my data as a .csv file and bring that into Cad2cad. This is how I was shown to do it by Assembleon. To use .csv you have to set your file format on the format cad file tab(during import to Cad2cad) to Character Delimited and use a , as your character. If your already manipulating your data in Excel just save it as a .csv instead of.txt. Luckily I get cad data exported from our layout package so I've never had to get it from Gerber data so I can't provide any input there. Sorry.

reply »


sny

#56749

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 29 September, 2008

does anyone know how to create blocks for PCBs that are panelized? thanks

reply »


Air M

#57445

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 29 November, 2008

What the other user was talking about is correct, converting it from gerber to machine cad. It is hard explaining programming SMT to a new user unless shown by another experience operator. I am also getting a topaz x pretty soon and I'll try to help if I can. As for blocks, there should be a repeat offsets on the machine computer. You need to tell the pitch between each block. What I mean by that is for x, same point example r1 to the next r1 left right. For y, up down, same point r1 to r1. That will be offset pitch. To confirm you have it right, you can bring camera to those coordinates to see if they hit on the same spots. If not, change offset pitch. Hope that help.

Air

reply »


bskepnek

#57829

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 20 January, 2009

Can someone tell me where I can get the Cad2Cad software?

reply »


Kevslatvin

#57856

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 January, 2009

I got mine from the Assembleon sales rep. It was free so I wonder if you contact Assembleon if they will send you a copy. They may only do it if you register your machine with them though and I don't know if there is acost associated with that.

reply »


Steve Thomas

#57862

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 22 January, 2009

I got mine from my used equipment broker, and it was version 1.5.

I would try wherever you get your spares from. My recollection is that the "free" versions (1.5 and older) are not available through Assembleon anymore and that the current version is only provided with their new machines.

reply »


mabdalla

#61535

NEW to Philips Topaz-X need help programming | 1 April, 2010

Hi,

Any suggestions how to interpret the program for Philips Topaz.

Will really appreciate if somebody can point me to where I can get the programming specification.

Thanks

reply »

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