SMT Assistant Software for Handplacing Parts: Free and Awesome. - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 08:47:12 pm
content: I use a great wee bit of free software "SMTAssitant" from Alicom; and thought it was worth sharing. Its just a aid to help you get your parts down on the board.http://www.alciom.com/en/downloads/free-downloads.htmlQuoteI export a PNP file out of ALitum, and then make a screen shot of the board.. It creates a "bin list" of parts.. so you can be very organised, and then steps you through placing them part by part.. It highlights the area for the part to be placed, and provides a zoom window.. Its a real godsend for speeding things up!

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 19, 2016, 09:18:24 pm
content: I spent the last two years manually assembling my PCB's - many designs, many hundreds of PCB's, many 10's of thousands of placements. Now that I actually got a P&P machine - this shows up. What timing.Organization is KEY to manual assembly, this looks great. I spent countless hours creating my on software and physical organization to get through my assembly needs. If I knew of this software - I would be months ahead of where I am now.Nice find.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 20, 2016, 12:49:46 am
content: Quote from: rx8pilot on February 19, 2016, 09:18:24 pmNow i feel terrible. I've been using this for a few years, and not sure why, but i thought i should post about it.. I read about it in some magazine i think.The only bit that is a little bit odd in this software is the way you have to configure the .ini file to adapt it for various CAM packages.. Theres examples for the more common ones though.

author: D3f1ant
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2016, 01:36:45 am
content: Thanks mrpackethead, this is gold

author: rx8pilot
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 21, 2016, 02:13:20 am
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on February 20, 2016, 12:49:46 amIt never occurred to me to even search for this. All is well now that I was able to move beyond most manual assembly.For anyone planning to assemble PCB's manually - having a tool like this is CRUCIAL if you are doing more than just a blinky LED.

author: Christopher
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2016, 07:19:34 pm
content: This looks pretty damn good!The killer feature for me is the technician setting the software up. He shouldn't need to know what a pick n place file is!! Just File -> Load Board should load it all in, with calibration and top n bottom already.Also no gerbers import is a bit of a pain but not the end of the world !

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 22, 2016, 08:47:58 pm
content: Quote from: Christopher on February 22, 2016, 07:19:34 pmYes.QuoteYes, absolutely a way to save a "setup" would be awesome.. It would save time, when you have to jump back to something.QuoteActually i'm fine with this.. Gerbers are quite a painful thing to use.. I more often than not find myself using a rendered 3d image of the final board, rather than just the track layout.. It helps quite a lot in getting things sorted..

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 02:03:45 am
content: I was a bit dubious about this little program, I usually mark up a printed layout with different coloured highlighter markers and use that as a reference.I loaded it up and it looks quite good. At first I could not get it to run but I enabled XP SP3 compatibility & admin rights and it then worked ok. I'll give it a go next time I've some boards to assemble.Thanks OP.

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 07:51:43 am
content: Not sure about XP, I've only used it on Win7 and Win10.

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 08:04:30 am
content: Quote from: mrpackethead on February 23, 2016, 07:51:43 amI should have mentioned I'm running W8.I'd double click the executable and nothing would happen. Nada. Tried a few times then set for XP compatibility + run as admin and it opened ok.

author: Fred27
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 09:40:55 am
content: Looks useful. Does anyone know if something similar for Eagle?Sorry - just clicked through and it looks like it can be used with Eagle too. Leaving this post here to help anyone else who was wondering.

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 12:38:17 pm
content: Anyone figure out the .ini file for Protel?I'm getting an error "missing mandatory column ID in ini file".Exporting the pnp file as a csv gives this:1 6 3 4 0 0 0 0 2 7 5==========================================="Designator","Footprint","Mid X","Mid Y","Ref X","Ref Y","Pad X","Pad Y","Layer","Rotation","Comment""""LCD1","LCD_WINSTAR1602B","-65.996mil","1968.41mil","-1325.839mil","2588.488mil","-1325.839mil","2588.488mil","T","0.00","LCD 16X2 WINSTAR 1602B"===========================================My .ini file says this:3,1,6,3,4,0,0,0,0,2,7,5--------------------------------------------------------SmtAssistant configuration fileSyntax :Line 1 : Number of lines to skip when reading a PKP fileLine 2 : Field separator between columns of the PKP fileLine 3 : Respective indexes of the PKP columns, as follows :Mandatory fields :1 : Part ID (string, should be formed as letters followed by a number, as R101 or CP5)2 : layer (any string starting with B or b will be understood as Bottom, else Top)3 : X (should be a signed decimal number, separator is a dot)4 : Y (should be a signed decimal number, separator is a dot)Optionnal fields :5 : Value (string)6 : Package (string)7 : Rotation (should be a signed decimal number, separator is a dot)0 : unusedStrings could be either enclosed between double quotes ("STRING") orwithout double quote if they never include the separator character

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 06:49:33 pm
content: Quote from: Fred27 on February 23, 2016, 09:40:55 amYes, it can be used for pretty much anything that produces a Pick and Place file as a txt file.

author: AlexDavidson
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: February 23, 2016, 09:04:13 pm
content: QuoteI noticed the same problem. Through a process of elimination I found that it didn’t like the zeroes in the column mapping, so I used Excel to remove the unused columns in the PKP file. That meant I no longer required zeroes in the column mapping line in the ini file, and everything worked fine.

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 04:42:31 am
content: For protel99 the following seems to work ok:Export CSV pnp file from Protel, open in excel or whatever .......Delete 4 x position columns, keeping only the mid x & mid y columnsSave file as .csv and then rename as .txt file.Edit the first 3 lines of the .ini file to be:2,1,6,3,4,2,7,5

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: February 24, 2016, 07:58:39 am
content: Oh, I remember this problem.. "0" never seemed to work for me. In Alitum I actually use a custom output job to create my pnp files and since I did'tn ever use all the fields the default gave, I removed them.. Saves another editing step.There are a few things that could improve this software, but it is free. I wonder if they would consider opensourcing it.

author: Jeroen3
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 25, 2016, 06:13:24 pm
content: I used this software today. And I can confirm it reduced misplaced and skipped components to zero.Great tool. Could still use some improvements, but it's workable.

author: DTJ
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2016, 07:28:55 am
content: I gave it a try out. While it's a great idea and might be good for some I've reverted back to a paper system.Using different coloured high lighter markers I mark all of the same part values one colour ie 100nF caps yellow, 10k resistors blue etc.I've only got about 8 high lighter colours so it has its shortcomings.I find its a bit faster than using the SMT assistant software.

author: Kjelt
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2016, 10:24:46 am
content: Thanks for posting this, will try it out next time, it beats the 8 copies highlighting the parts.Can you also change the order of component placements, for instance all the same value parts first, then second value parts etc.

author: D3f1ant
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2016, 07:19:44 pm
content: Yes, it actually sorts them by part type by default but you can sort on other columns if you want. You also get a pop-up when component value changes. You really have to try very hard to assemble a board incorrectly

author: mrpackethead
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: April 27, 2016, 07:58:14 pm
content: I've had a bit of a crazy idea, and am windering if we can tune OpenPNP down to run in "manual" mode.