Re: getting the pcb from a pdf file

Hi Christian,

I looked over the information on your website, and as near as I can tell, your tool doesn't take Gerber RS274X files as its input. Is this true?

Does your program automatically figure out the milling paths, or is this done manually?

Does your HPGL output format allow for use on machines that define one step as 1/1000th inch, rather than 1/1016th inch?

Also, as near as I can tell, your demo won't allow any milling to be done at all. I cannot tell anything about your output translation accuracy unless I can mill.

-Chuck Harris

Christian Z> Hello there!

Hi!

"Chuck Harris" schrieb im Newsbeitrag news:406e2341$0$3077$ snipped-for-privacy@news.rcn.com...

It can take Gerber as input for drill import, but currently not for the conduction tracks. As I see from some other feedback, I decide to add this functionality very soon. I personally prefer postscript. Are there still so many pcb layout programs out there that rely on gerber only?

This is done automatically with the opportunity to define a set of up to 4 different engraver diameters which has the andvantage that the smallest (=slowest, most expensive and least enduring) engraving tools are only used where it is necessary. Some other neat features let you either remove any surplus copper or widen the isolation gaps what makes soldering a lot easier. It should be mentioned that the drills were automatically extracted from the pdf, too, including a useful suggestion for the drill diameters, although the source image's drills were only intended as an aid for manual drilling.

This is user definable. G-Code format is heavily user adjustable, too.

You can export drill data with the demo, and if you use the 'emulate drills with cutter' functionality, you can export milling paths for such drills, too. If you take the program seriously into account, you can send me a project file that you prepared with the demo and I will provide you with the output of the full version.

Best regards,

-- Christian Zinner Vienna, Austria

Email: snipped-for-privacy@PlatinCnc.com Web:

these

Spehro

employing

Still? Most of them use Gerber274X

Regards,

Boris Mohar

Got Knock? - see: Viatrack Printed Circuit Designs

Hi Christian,

I have never heard of a professional PC layout package that didn't use Gerber RS274X, or D, as its standard output. It has been more than 15 years since I have used a PC board house that didn't expect Gerber RS-274X, or D, as its preferred input. Prior to that, they wanted 1-to-1 film overlays. I have been making PCB's for more than 20 years (back then, a Gerber photoplotter was really a photoplotter!).

Certainly there are other formats available, but for the US, market, Gerber RS274X is the standard for the board files, and Excellon is the standard for the drill files.

If you are going to add Gerber to your package, and I think that you must, download gerbv, and look at its gerber file translation routines. The RS274X standard was written by idiots, and as such has lots of room for conflicting interpretations. The gerbv (a gnu project) programmers have done an excellent job of making a universal parser for RS274X. It works on everything that is out there.

G-Codes are only used for general purpose machine tools, such as milling machines, lathes and punches.

A large number of the PCB mills and Vinyl cutters use a variant of HPGL as their driver language. Some use 1/1000th inch as their minimum step size, some follow the HP standard and use 1/1016th inch.

Some of the older PCB mills that use HPGL will get totally hosed if you send more than 256 characters without a CRLF, so commands like:

PDxxxx,yyyy,xxxx,yyyy,xxxx,yyyy,xxxx,yyyy,xxxx,yyyy,.......;

That extend for more than 256 characters without a ";" and CRLF will crash the mill. It is always ok to send them out as:

PDxxxx,yyyy; PDxxxx,yyyy; PDxxxx,yyyy; ... PDxxxx,yyyy;

Some of the older PCB mills will get totally hosed if you send decimals in the inch mode:

PUxxxx.0123456789,yyyy.0123456789;

How do I know this? I have an old IBC-912, and it is one of those mills.

I will look at your package. It sounds pretty good, but I have a feeling that it is not yet ready for prime time.

Thanks,

-Chuck Harris

Christian Z> Hi!

Hi!

Back from the weekend I found some reactions to my previous posting that filled me with mixed emotions. So please, let me make some things clear:

"Christian Zinner" wrote in news:406e7902$0$18702$ snipped-for-privacy@tunews.univie.ac.at...

so

I think that the last sentence lead to a total misunderstanding. I must state here, that english is not my first language and this may be the reason for that. It is clear for me that almost every pcb layout software supports gerber output. My question was if there are still many of them that don't offer

*any other* output file format. For example, if a CAD system supports printing of layouts to a printer under windows, you can select a postscript printer driver of your choice, print into a file and it should be no problem to interface to PlatinCnc. And, as I said already, I plan to add a gerber import filter into the application soon.

Generally I know what I'm talking about, so please let's keep peace. I'm grateful for any constructive comment, I think that's for what such newsgroups are for.

Regards,

-- Christian Zinner Vienna, Austria

Email: snipped-for-privacy@PlatinCnc.com Web: