I’ve looked around the site a bit, and I haven’t really found an answer to this (feel free to “RTFM” me if I missed it somewhere).
Does the PCB Deal include support for non-rectangular boards? I’m doing my board layout in EAGLE (1.14). Since the submission process doesn’t include the “dimension” layer, how can I indicate any custom cutouts or slots?
This question was discussed before here:
http://www.sparkfun.com/cgi-bin/phpbb/v … php?t=1304
My boards have all been rectangular, but I think the key point in the above thread was to make sure your Dimension layer is correct. The Dimension layer ends up on the silkscreen when you run the SFE special script, so that’s how they know where to cut.
Jake
Thanks eejake! The SFE script I got from the site doesn’t actually put the Dimension layer onto the new _tsilk and _bsilk layers. Is it possible I’m using the wrong script? Can anyone tell me where I can download the latest version of the silk_gen.ulp and SFE-Special.cam?
Hmmm, I’m probably wrong about that ULP. I just tried it and got the same result as you. I don’t know how they determine the board dimensions; but somehow it happens, because all of my boards have been cut to exactly the right size to fit in the snap track. See this example:
http://www.telusplanet.net/public/jacob … el/thermo/
Anyone else know how they do this?
Jake
Well, I added the “Dimension” layer to the two Silk Screen sections in the CAM job. The layer prints out fine, but I don’t know if Sparky will reject the board, since the Dimension layer wires are less than 8 mils.
I DO know that the online cost calculator (http://www.sparkfun.com/~mpittuck/size.php) uses the silkscreen files to calculate size, which leads me to think that the dimension layer should be included in these files.
Just add the dimensions to the top silkscreen layer.
Here is a example of a board that has a odd shape:
