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Eagle, Gerbers and FastTrack

Hi all,

I'm trying to decide if I should buy Eagle or not. The program itself seems pretty decent, but I'm having trouble getting the resulting PCB made. My usual manufacturer is Fastrack. When I sent them my Gerbers I was told they weren't any good - the tracks looked OK but the holes were spread out to an area about 50x the size of the circuit board.

Fastrack say

"We use your excellon drill file to determine what size holes to drill and where. Plated and Non Plated holes should be included in one drill file, with plated and non-plated holes having different tool numbers. Format required: Excellon Format, ASCII Odd / None, 2.4 Trailling Zero Suppression, English Units, No step and repeats. "

It turns out that Eagle produced drill files with Leading zero suppression and is unable to use Trailing zero suppression. But I was later told this was a typo and Fastrack wants Leading zero suppression after all.

So has anyone had any luck getting eagle or gerber files fabbed by Fastrack? I've always used Protel and never had to muck around with gerbers before.

Thanks,

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski
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I don't know about the particulars, but Eagle is a popular package. If your PCB company can't handle the file, go elsewhere. I'd recommend

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for prototypes.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

recommendwww.pcbcart.comfor prototypes.

BTW, PCBCART take Eagle files directly.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

Hi David,

Thanks for the reply. I'm now using PCBCart for protos - they leave my old manufacturer in the dust. Thanks a ton for suggesting them.

Al

Reply to
Al Borowski

No problem. I've used them a few times now for home projects and they are hard to beat. Not the cheapest, but far from the most expensive, and their service is excellent. They handle odd-ball stuff really well too.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

Just had a look, and they beat my most usual small-run house on price.

I presume the quality is pretty good too. If so I may give them a try in the near future.

Reply to
budgie

Yes, quality is pretty good, I've had no issues so far.

Dave.

Reply to
David L. Jones

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