MTOOLs Revision History

This document summarizes enhancements and fixes to the MTOOLS MSK to Gerber/DXF translation programs. Please consult this page on a regular basis to determine what changes have been made to the program.

v3.41 6/14/2000

Fix Flash Circle Problem
After a mask file is passing through one "flash circle" session, a "scan" file would be created. In previous versions, this scan file was used to filter future "flash" session; i.e. no new circles nor holes can be flashed (new circles and holes are added because the mask file is changed). This version always ignore existing scan file.

v3.30 11/20/1998

Use time zone independent security
Use new keyless security routines that do not depend on time zone.

v3.27 5/13/1998

Updated Floating License Manager
Updated from Lserv 3.2a to Lserv 4.0. This makes the floating license manager Y2K compliant. Keycodes for 3.2a are not usable for 4.0 so new floating license keycodes will have to be issued. This does not affect launching MTOOLS from ADS since ADS uses flexlm and passes the keycodes via a different method to MTOOLs.

v3.26 03/12/1998

Internal Security Change
Updates timing on some security routines. Does not affect customer usage.

Merge Dialog Added
Added a dialog box that enables the user to merge multiple mask layers into a single RS274X file. Supports paint/scratch.

v3.25 03/04/1998

Add -oem command line option
When MTOOLs is launched with the command line option, -oem, all text windows identifying Artwork as the supplier of the software are unavailable.

Use modal log window
- In previous versions, the end of translation was finalized by a modal log window dialog. This log window is now a modeless dialog.

Change buttons in log window
Add a "Save As" button in the log window to allow user to save the log information to a file. This button replaces the old "Keep" button.
Remove the "Clear" button from the log window.
Rename the "Dismiss" button to "Close".

v3.24 11/03/1997

Fix mask file selection bug
Next to the mask file selection edit box, there is a down arrow button. clicking on this button launches the mask file selection dialog. This dialog is the only way user can change the working directory, and/or select multiple mask files from different directories (not a very useful feature.) Both of these features were broken in the previous version. This condition is now fixed.

Fix long filename support bug NT
Long filename support were not working properly on NT 3.x machine, if spaces were used in the name. This is now fixed.

v3.23 09/03/97

Add support for Windows long filenames

Limits one mask file selection for version 3 mask file
Version 3 mask file contains multiple layers in a single file. Thus, this program will only support one version 3 mask file per translation.

Use layer name in gerber output
Gerber output filenames will be derived from the mask layer names (version 3). Previously these gerber file names were assigned numbers that had no meaning to the user.

User specified exclude layers in gerber
User can now specify the layers to be translated in the gerber engine. Clicking on the "Translation" button pops open a layer selection dialog. Only the selected layers on the dialog will be translated by the gerber engine. (This feature is available with version 3 mask files only.)

Direct WEB connection
Add a button which launches the Windows default browser and points to the artwork MTOOLs WEB page.

v3.22 07/28/97

Support Software Key
Add support of software security key. This will enable HP EEsof to launch MTOOLs and use HP's Flexlm to control licensing.

Defined default APT (Aperture) filename
When a new mask file is selected, and no APT file has been given, the mask file will be scanned, and either english.apt or metric.apt will be defaulted as the APT filename.

v3.21 January 30, 1997

Fixed Flash Circle Function
The Flash Circles command returned "No Flash Information" when in fact there should be flashes generated. Fixed the 3.20 bug.

v3.20 January 27, 1997

First Release of MTOOLS 3.0 on UNIX

v3.17 12/13/96

Improve "View Mask" display
"View Mask" function now displays a much better picture, and the confusing 2.54 metric to inch scale factor is eliminated.

v3.16

Never Shipped or implemented.

v3.15 11/04/96

Fixed a problem parsing the mask file when a "Filled" entity did not end with the expected"END_CC" statement. This makes the parser more robust against errors in the mask file.

v3.14 October 18, 1996

Windows version changes

m2gbr translator assigned its own product number. This allows us to ship the MTOOLs distribution and only license the asm1250 module.

The Windows interface has been modified to support the following methods of determining which modules will run:

  • the translator dll file must exist
  • the translator dll must have a valid keycode strings; we can now use the keycode strings to control which translators to appear on screen

m2gds now supporst a Max Vertex parameters. Max Vertex range is from 200 to 5000, default 200. This allows user to control how many vertices a GDSII boundary can have.

m2dxf will enable the Visual window when gbrvu is not found.This enables us to ship the m2dxf (asm1000) translator without gbrvu.

Added hostid nodelocking for Windows NT and 95. This enables us to lock the program to the user's MAC address on networked machines and to eliminate the hardware key.



V3.13 September 19, 1996

Security

Added the ability to lock MTOOLS NT/95 to a network card. A new program called hostid.exe makes a call to TCP/IP services and returns the network card's MAC address. It then derives a hostid from this address. This will enable us to ship MTOOLs by Internet to customers and to enable them to lock it to the computer's network.

M2GDS

Now supports GDSII boundaries and paths with up to 4096 sides instead of the old limit of 200 sides. User controls max boundary count.

V3.12 August 15, 1996

First Shipping Release
This is the first version of MTOOLS 3.0 shipped for Windows NT and Windows 95.