Hi everyone,
I recently followed the Sparkfun tutorial to generate a gerber file from my board layout. The tutorial explicitly lists the files that should be sent to the fab house as follows:
Top Copper (GTL)
Top Soldermask (GTS)
Top Silkscreen (GTO)
Bottom Copper (GBL)
Bottom Soldermask (GBS)
Bottom Silkscreen (GBO)
Drill File (2:4 leading).
I thought that the drill file was the .dri file, so I sent that off to the fab house with the other files and of course they complained that the drill file was missing.
I then went back through the files that were generated and I found an ascii file that had a bunch of Z/Y coordinates in it. That has to be it, I thought, but it has the extension .txt? That can’t be right surely?
I did some more research on the net and apparently the file should be .drd.
Am I safe to rename the file to .drd and send it off? I’m not sure - hence my confusion!
Anyway I’ve now sent the fab house the file renamed as .drd and we’ll see what they come back with.
They also specifically asked me to send them the non plated drills. I’m not sure what they’re getting at there - I assume that all the required drills will be in the .drd file.
Any advice welcome.
Brian