M2E(1alc)

🦋 mbk2eagle ✨ the manual, but it's a group chat 💅

okay bestie, welcome to mbk2eagle — and no, it's not a bird, it's a whole tool 🦅✨

so here's the vibe: this thing takes a structural description of a board (a .vst file) and generates a script file that Eagle can actually use — Eagle being the board-routing software, iykyk. that generated file is what hands Eagle the list of components being used plus how all those components are interconnected. it's giving matchmaker but for pins 🔥

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🎀 what you gotta bring to the party 🎀

your .vst structural description is not enough on its own, bestie. it needs three types of files to go with it:

• a nom__de_figure.pin file — this is the description of the printed circuit board's connections, along with its environment (aka the board's connectors) 🔌
• one or more composants.pin files — these are the different models of components that have to be placed on the printed circuit board 🧩
• a nom__de_figure.cls file — in here you define the class of the signals, plus the rotation and the placement of the different instances of the models. fyi by default a signal's class is class 0 👑

and listen — inside these files, empty lines or lines that start with # are just ignored. no cap, they get skipped 🫶

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💖 1. Organisation du fichier nom__de_figure.pin 💖

so in this file, for every single connector on the board, you have to put the 2 rubriques, and yes, in this exact order:

🌸 Rubrique 1 — /MODELE <instance> <modele> <rotation> <(coordonnees)>

• <instance> — this is the instance name of the connector.
• <modele> — the name of the Eagle file that describes the connector. its form is: nom_modele@nom_bibliotheque
• <rotation> — you can put one of these values: R0, R90, R180, R270.
• <(coordonnees)> — the provisional position of the connector (x y). it has to be entirely inside the usable zone, which is currently 100x160 mm.

🌸 Rubrique 2 — /CONNECTEURS

then you list out the connector's signals, one signal per line, in this form:

<repère de broche> <nom du signal>

✨ EXAMPLE ✨

/MODELE P1 IBM8BIT@con-pc R90 (6.5 0.5)

/CONNECTEURS B1      VSS B3      VDD B29     VDD B31     VSS

A2      DATA(7)  A3      DATA(6)  A4      DATA(5) A5      DATA(4)
A6      DATA(3) A7      DATA(2) A8      DATA(1) A9      DATA(0)

A11     AEN

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🧚 2. Organisation des fichiers composants.pin 🧚

in this file you must place 2 rubriques, in order:

💜 Rubrique 1 — /MODELE <modele>

<modele> is the name of the Eagle file that describes the connector. it's of the form: nom_modele@nom_bibliotheque

💜 Rubrique 2 — /CONNECTEURS

you list the signals of the component in this form:

<repère de broche> <nom du signal>

✨ EXAMPLE ✨

/MODELE DIL08@dil (0.5 3.0)

/CONNECTEURS 1   DATA 2   CLK 3   OE_N 4   CE_N 5   VSS 6   CEO 7 VPP 8   VDD

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👑 3. Organisation du fichier nom__de_figure.cls 👑

in this file you must place 2 rubriques, in order:

🌈 Rubrique 1 — /CLASS

then you list the signals with their class number, one signal per line, in this form:

<nom du signal> <numéro de la classe>

and bestie, you literally do not need to list the signals of class 0. this rubrique can even be empty — but the /CLASS itself has to be there. no skipping it, periodt 💅

🌈 Rubrique 2 — /PLACEMENT

then you list the instances with the rotation to perform and the placement coordinates, one instance per line, in this form:

<nom de l'instance> <rotation> <coordonnées>

• <rotation> — you can put one of these values: R0, R90, R180, R270.
• <(coordonnees)> — the provisional position of the component (x y). it has to be entirely inside the board's usable zone, currently 100x160 mm.

✨ EXAMPLE ✨

/CLASS CLK  1 VSS  2 VDD  2

/PLACEMENT IC1  R90   (4.25 1.2) IC2  R180  (3.25  1.2)  IC3   R0 (3.25 1.4)

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🎀 4. Ligne de commande 🎀

here's the synopsis, verbatim bestie, don't come for me:

m2e  [-v n ]  [-o output]  figure

• -v n — this sets the level of the messages that get displayed. by default it's 1. and the levels go like this:
  • 0 — only the errors get displayed 😭
  • 1 — errors and warnings get displayed
  • 2 — on top of that, the names of the .pin files used get displayed 👀
  • 3 — trace mode, for the debug girlies 🐛
• -o output — it's sitting right there in the synopsis too, that's all this page gives us, so that's all i'm giving you 💅

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🦋 5. Variable d'environnement 🦋

M2E_PIN_LIB must be defined. it gives the access paths to the .pin files 📂

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! 🫶💖 this one is from the alc manual, section 1, dated 01/07/2002 — and the tool's name is mbk2eagle, so now you know exactly what to type. go slay those boards ✨👑🌱