Alright, I’ve submitted two boards and both of them have come up with drill file issues. They passed DRC of both Protell and the bot. It was subsequently rejected with drill file problems. I can’t seem to figure out what the problem with this Drill file is… maybe someone can help?
This file was generated by Protell, I selected “remove trailing zeros” as that was the default, it was also the default of the file selection on uploading the file.
Offhand, I’d say the second entry in the T01 section is missing the Y-coordinate. From what I can tell, SFE requires that every entry in the file have a full X and Y value.
I’m also experiencing the joys of drill files. Who would have thought they’d be so much fun!
I have also encountered numerous drill file problems, here is the story:
generated drill files in both Altium and Protel. When imported in GerbTool, the drill points are offset (OK I have to check the reference origin, but it is still odd). But more annoying, the graphical representation of the drill point is 10 times (1000%) too large!
I thought, humm, maybe some kind of special drill file format.
So I took the drill guide from Protel, imported in GerbTool, and had gerbtool generate an excellon file of it. It showed OK, no shift, no enlargement. I save it (from GerbTool). Shut down gerbTool, and opened this saved file. Guess what, again 10 times too big!
I also tried scaling down to 10%, save and open again to no avail.
This is driving me nuts.
These CAD programs are supposed to be top notch, now I have my doubts.
Anyone an idea what’s going on?
Help appreciated. I have been fighting with drill files for over 3 weeks now.
And how to create a mill file? Another topic maybe?
I use Protel version 2.8, so my suggestions may not be applicable to your version , but here goes:
1 - When I generate Gerber files, there is a checkbox for “Center plots on film.” As I recall, when I clicked that, it caused the drill files to be offset. If you have a similar checkbox, try it both ways and see what happens.
2 - Have you looked at the Gerber file in a text editor and checked the header? I have had various drill file problems, which I pointed out in an earlier post in this thread. Steve corrected my “INCH” versus “INCHES” error, but the fact still remains that even with it saying “INCHES”, the DRC checker passed it and my PCB came out perfectly. Protel seemed to be not setting the correct info for telling the reader that the file was in inches and not millimeters. Can you post your Gerber file up to the line that says “T01”?
If units=mm, then Protel only lets you save in 4 digits before the decimal. GerbTool does not support that (go figure!!). Hence the factor 10.
So I used inch as unit throughout, and 2:3 format, no leading zero’s. make sure every time you save a file you have to set the units and decimals and origin over and over again. Protel tends to change this.
Now everything matched up (I also used absolute origin evry time)
In order to generate proper Excellon Drill and Mill files, use the import wizard in gerbTool after having generated the NC files in Protel (note, Protel does not generate proper Excellon format). Gerbtool sorts out the tool list and generates mill and drill files. Lets see what the PCB shop makes of it.
