APERTURES MISSING - NO PLOTFILE HAS BEEN PRODUCED!

Community PCB Design
1

This is my first board in years, and the first time ever using Eagle. I stumbled through the schematic and the board layout, and seem to have corrected my many mistakes, but now I am really stuck on the CAM processor. Most of my files, like this .stc file, have apterures missing errors:

G01*

X000000Y000000D02*

!!! APERTURES MISSING - NO PLOTFILE HAS BEEN PRODUCED!

X000000Y000000D02*

M02*

The .gpi file looks friendly:

Generated by EAGLE CAM Processor 5.6.0

Photoplotter Info File: /Users/tomo/Documents/eagle/Darts/dart.gpi

Date : 2009-Jul-15 01:47

Plotfile : /Users/tomo/Documents/eagle/Darts/dart.GBS

Apertures : generated:

Device : Gerber photoplotter with RS-274-X aperture generation

Parameter settings:

Emulate Apertures : no

Emulate Thermal : no

Emulate Annulus : no

Tolerance Draw + : 0.00 %

Tolerance Draw - : 0.00 %

Tolerance Flash + : 0.00 %

Tolerance Flash - : 0.00 %

Rotate : no

Mirror : no

Optimize : yes

Auto fit : yes

OffsetX : 0inch

OffsetY : 0inch

Plotfile Info:

Coordinate Format : 2.4

Coordinate Units : Inch

Data Mode : Absolute

Zero Suppression : None

End Of Block : *

Emulated Apertures:

-------- Requested Aperture -------- ------ Used Aperture ------

Shape Size used Code Shape Size

octagon 0.0830inch 1 D17 draw 0.0166inch

Apertures used:

Code Shape Size used

D10 round 0.1340inch 3

D11 square 0.0680inch 2

D12 octagon 0.0680inch 18

D13 draw 0.0600inch 43

D14 square 0.0595inch 24

D15 octagon 0.0600inch 9

D16 round 0.0830inch 4

D17 draw 0.0166inch 1

D18 octagon 0.0830inch 3

D19 draw 0.0680inch 47

D20 round 0.0600inch 2

D21 octagon 0.1080inch 8

D22 octagon 0.0710inch 4

D23 round 0.0480inch 33

I think I am using the script that I downloaded from this site to create gerber files, but it seems to stop with very few clues.
I don’t understand the language of these CAM files, so I am having a lot of trouble debugging my problem. I would be very grateful of the assistance of someone with more experience.

2

Have you tried the “gerb274x.cam” cam file that comes with EAGLE? If that works, then there must be something wrong with the cam file that you downloaded. Perhaps downloading it again will work.

BTW, there are very active EAGLE newsgroups. See www.cadsoft.de.

3

When I run gerb274x.cam, no layer are selected. And I see the at some of the mirrored checked off on some of the tabs. It sounds like that causes a lot of trouble for some people.

4

Tomo:
When I run gerb274x.cam, no layer are selected. And I see the at some of the mirrored checked off on some of the tabs. It sounds like that causes a lot of trouble for some people.

Well, that’s odd that no layers are selected. In “gerb274x.cam” that came with EAGLE, the following are checked:

TOP/component (*.cmp) : #1 (top), #17 (pads), #18 (vias)
BOTTOM/solder (*.sol) : #16(bottom), #17,#18
TOP silk      (*.plc) : #20 (dimension), #21 (tplace), #25 (tNames), optional=#27 (tValues)
TOP solder mask (*.stc) : #29 (tStop)
Bottom solder mask (*.sts) : #30 (bStop)

DO NOT mirror any layers!  If the CAM file supplied by Cadsoft has "mirror" checked, it's WRONG!

The SparkFun CAM file may use different file extensions, but the layers should be the same.

5

(Ah, the price you pay to get good at things.) I opened it from the tree in the control panel this time, and it seems to have worked. The output files all seem fine. I don’t know what happened, but I seem to be un-stuck. As I keep working on this, maybe I will learn what I did wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to lend a hand to a beginner! :smiley:

6

Tomo:
(Ah, the price you pay to get good at things.) I opened it from the tree in the control panel this time, and it seems to have worked. The output files all seem fine. I don’t know what happened, but I seem to be un-stuck. As I keep working on this, maybe I will learn what I did wrong.

Thanks for taking the time to lend a hand to a beginner! :smiley:

I’m glad I could help.