Export PCB Mask from Orcad layout

Is there a way to export or convert the etching/routing to an image to be printed? Right now I'm converting to PCB editor but this seems the long way around. Just wondering if there is a way to print or export a photo mask directly in layout.

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter
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The Pulsonix software I use can plot to a Windows printer. I use an inkjet printer to produce the artwork for my homemade PCBs. You could use a Gerber viewer and output from that to a printer, but it shouldn't be necessary.

Leon

Reply to
Leon

You can print a layer directly to your printer driver (printer, pdf generator, ...) from Layout.

Options | Post Processor Settings Left click on the layer you want to print to highlight. Right click and select "Plot to print manager".

You can also change the output format to "Printer Manager" and print multiple layers as a batch file from Layout.

If you want to print the Gerber files, do that in GerbTool which comes packaged with Layout.

If you really want to create image files so you can stick them in a word processer document, get one of the printer driver interfaces that use GhostScript. They will allow you to print to PDF and a variety of image formats like GIF or PNG (don't use JPG for pcb artwork). I'm using PDFCreator which can be found on SourceForge.

Mark

Reply to
qrk

Yeah, I used an inkjet too. Going to get a laser printer to see if the resolution is better. The inkjet worked fine but I'm going to try to do some smt and not sure if the inkjet can handle it.

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

Thanks, this is what I was looking for.

When I did this the first time I got all the layers when I just wanted the traces so I didn't know how to go about just printing one layer.

I'll try it and see just for fun ;)

Well, I use adobo and distiller which works well for the most part. GS probably would work better but since I use adobe anyways and it does it I guess there no real need to clutter up the system.

One problem with distiller is that some of the traces are not sharp. I assume this is because its converting to jpg and it won't happen if I print directly to a printer.

Thanks, Jon

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

Try using GC Prevue by importing the gerber file and then printing it.

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Reply to
Marra

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