Aperture too thin

Archive BatchPCB
1

I’m trying to upload a board to batchPCB for the first time. I’m getting the error in my top layer:

Checked Aperture 10 (0.0040): Failed

Error - Aperture too thin

Is there any way to figure out what’s the offending feature on my board in eagle? I’ve tried a bunch of things with no success.

Thanks!

-Mike

2

oatmeal2000:
I’m trying to upload a board to batchPCB for the first time. I’m getting the error in my top layer:

Checked Aperture 10 (0.0040): Failed

Error - Aperture too thin

Is there any way to figure out what’s the offending feature on my board in eagle? I’ve tried a bunch of things with no success.

Greetings Mike,

Did you run ERC and DRC on your design before running the CAM job (that creates Gerber output)?

If your design passes DRC you likely have one (or more) design limit parameters set too low for the BatchPCB fab limits. Remember that BatchPCB is limited to 8mil traces and 8mil spaces, and 20mil holes.

As you likely already know, a Gerber Aperture is the width of the feature that is drawn in the final artwork by the photoplotter that makes the film for exposing the board. Think of it as the ‘width’ of a pencil line.

In the DRC dialog select the fifth tab (sizes) and change the min width to 8mil and the min drill to 20mil or larger if you wish to build in more margin - just because BatchPCB can do 8mil traces and spaces doesn’t mean its wise to push those limits in every design. (For example I set mine to 10mil and 24mil respectively).

Comments Welcome!

3

I’m also getting this message, but for the bottom layer. My DRC parameters are all set to the defaults, except the min drill size is 20mil. It’s the exact same DRC setup I used for my last design, which passed fine. On inspection of the bottom layer, I can’t find anything wrong.

-Mike

4

double post…?

5

I found my problem, somehow some silkscreen text got moved to the copper layers and was messing everything up. I used the ‘check the gerber file coordinates and then find the feature in viewmate’ approach.

6

oatmeal2000:
I found my problem, somehow some silkscreen text got moved to the copper layers and was messing everything up. I used the ‘check the gerber file coordinates and then find the feature in viewmate’ approach.

Oatmeal,

Glad to hear that it’s solved. Did the EAGLE DRC not catch it?

Comments Welcome!

7

I’m still having trouble with this. It always says aperture to thing on my bottom layer. I can’t for the life of me find the problem. I want to submit an order, but I can’t like this…

EDIT: I had the same problem as in [this thread… I didn’t realize one of my parts had rounded pads until I really looked for it.](http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=6464)

8

mtwieg:
I’m still having trouble with this. It always says aperture to thing on my bottom layer. I can’t for the life of me find the problem. I want to submit an order, but I can’t like this…

EDIT: I had the same problem as in [this thread… I didn’t realize one of my parts had rounded pads until I really looked for it.[/quote]

Greetings mtwieg,

Did the EAGLE DRC not catch it?

Have you (and that other fellow) run the EAGLE DRC before zipping the files and sending to BatchPCB? I think that NOT running DRC (and getting “no errors found”) is an important step in the process.

Comments Welcome!](http://forum.sparkfun.com/viewtopic.php?t=6464)

9

No, eagle didn’t catch it. And it really shouldn’t, since it’s not a DRC violation. It likewise shouldn’t cause this problem for batchpcb. Rounded SMDs aren’t a big deal though.