Hi everyone. I am trying to panelize a board using PowerPCB via copy and paste. Unfortunately, I cannot use duplicate reference designators. Does anyone know how to allow duplicate reference designators? Does this option exist?
Or if someone can suggest an easier way to put multiple PCBs into one board, please tell me. Chris
Johnny,
1) Your fabricator will usually do the panelization and give you back a composite Gerber for solder stencil generation at no charge. This way they are identical. (Or even all layers for the panel, it is just the Gerbers they generated anyway, no extra cost to them.) 2) Since you are doing multiples of one board the assembler only needs a single board P&P list with the panel board orientations and offsets. Your offsets should be measured between the same fiducial on each board. Don't measure to board edges or holes, measure to one fiducial (copper).-- Sincerely, Brad Velander "Johnny" wrote in message news:9dsaa0tiea4uo4aai4q0322peh76rfb1ml@4ax.com... > On Fri, 14 May 2004 11:14:30 +0100, "Leon Heller" > > I think it is generally better to do if yourself, so that you have the > panel details in electronic form. This information is required for: > 1) Ordering solder paste stencils. This is very important because > they need to match the PCB exactly. > 2) Generating pick and place co-ordinates (although not essential) > > regards, > Johnny.
I've written a program called GerbMerge that puts multiple PCB's onto one board. It currently only supports Eagle, Orcad, and PCB. If you send me your Gerber and Excellon files, I can try to upgrade its parser support to also allow PowerPCB files to be panelized.
You can check out GerbMerge at:
-- Andrew Sterian | Assistant Professor | Padnos School of Engineering | (616) 331-6756 Grand Valley State University |
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"Andrew Sterian" wrote : "Chris" wrote : > I am trying to panelize a board using PowerPCB via copy and paste. : > Unfortunately, I cannot use duplicate reference designators. Does anyone : > know how to allow duplicate reference designators? Does this option exist? : >
: > Or if someone can suggest an easier way to put multiple PCBs into one board, : > please tell me. : : I've written a program called GerbMerge that puts multiple : PCB's onto one board. It currently only supports Eagle, Orcad, : and PCB. If you send me your Gerber and Excellon files, I can : try to upgrade its parser support to also allow PowerPCB files : to be panelized. : You can check out GerbMerge at: :
I use "CAMtastic 2000" for panelizing. Read about it at:
Oddly enough, the low price PCB vendors mostly have heartburn with user panelization. I tried to get a 0.5" x 0.6" board done at a reasonable price once. Even though the minimum pricing for a board was $12 based on a 20 sq in size, they would not let me panelize this. I had to search around for a house that would give both a good price and allow panelization. I ended up paying around $.30 each IIRC, but it took a lot of looking.
-- Rick "rickman" Collins rick.collins@XYarius.com Ignore the reply address. To email me use the above address with the XY removed. Arius - A Signal Processing Solutions Company Specializing in DSP and FPGA design URL http://www.arius.com 4 King Ave 301-682-7772 Voice Frederick, MD 21701-3110 301-682-7666 FAX
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