I’m trying to finish up a board layout and running into problems. My board has rounded corners and 6 notches for mounting, but I’m not having any luck getting this to show up in the DRC bot. I added a cam section to output layer 20 (dimension) to a gerber file for use as a keep out layer when I upload my board. However, this doesn’t seem to be helping. How should I generate the ‘keepout layer’ in eagle?
clemtaylor:
My board has rounded corners and 6 notches for mounting, but I’m not having any luck getting this to show up in the DRC bot.
Greetings clemtaylor,
I don’t think it will “show up” in the DRC bot output.
What's a "cam section"?clemtaylor:
I added a cam section to output layer 20 (dimension) to a gerber file for use as a keep out layer when I upload my board.
clemtaylor:
However, this doesn’t seem to be helping. How should I generate the ‘keepout layer’ in eagle?
Following the BatchPCB [FAQ suggestion you can submit a line drawing
of the board outline. From the EAGLE board editor turn off all layers
except 20, export an image, zip it into your project’s Gerber and
drill data and upload it to the BatchPCB bot (there’s a tag line for
the outline image file).
I don’t think this is combined with the normal data - it’s an
instruction to the BatchPCB operator to identify the PCB’s
outline.
Comments Welcome!](OSH Park ~)
I’ve had luck with just drawing the requested board outline in the top silkscreen layer and including a note in the comments of the order to cut the board to the indicated outline, including notches.
chris
whittenburg:
I’ve had luck with just drawing the requested board outline in the top silkscreen layer and including a note in the comments of the order to cut the board to the indicated outline, including notches.chris
Chris,
That will work but here is the problem: the bot bases the price on the wrong board dimentions, sure when the human looks at the JPG they will correct it but what about the price of the job? I mean I have stuff sticking out and the JPG shows that the board must be SMALLER than what the bot “saw” during the job sumbition but will the total be reduced once a human looks at the jpg and realizes that the actual size is smaller than what the bot determined by looking at the silk layer?
Thanks
B
Greetings (No First Name Supplied),
ds18s20:
I mean I have stuff sticking out and the JPG shows that the board must be SMALLER than what the bot “saw” during the job sumbition but will the total be reduced once a human looks at the jpg and realizes that the actual size is smaller than what the bot determined by looking at the silk layer?
The solution is very simple. Change your artwork to be no
larger than the actual desired PCB size. One method is to
crop your files before submission (to exclude any overhanging
components), or, go back to the CAD program and make new
layout symbols which only extend to the board edge.
I did the latter, which greatly simplifies the next layout,
and illiminates human error in reading the ambiguous
layout that you have now.
IIRC, this was discussed in the Sparkfun/BatchPCB tutorial.
The BatchPCB bot finds the largest X and Y dims and uses
those to caculate area (rounded up to the next square inch).
Comments Welcome!
What I do is leave the part outlines alone, but once I generate the silkscreen, I edit the silkscreen layer to chop off the lines that extend beyond the board edge. This means removing lines that cross the boundary and then redrawing the part of the line that is on the board leading up to the edge. It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s only done once, just before I export the gerbers. Plus, I don’t usually have too many parts that extend past the edge of the board.
Keith
Greetings Keith,
khearn:
I edit the silkscreen layer to chop off the lines that extend beyond the board edge.
Didn’t bother before using BatchPCB (the boards came
bacl with the correct size, and the silk screen was cropped
by the board house. To get the right board size in BatchPCB
I had to edit the silk layer before running the CAM job…
khearn:
It’s a bit of a hassle, but it’s only done once, just before I export the gerbers.
Agreed. It’s too easy to make a mistake, so I’ve
edited the symbols for parts I use often. Now it’s
no longer a problem.
Comments Welcome!
I agree that edited symbols will work best but how do you edit those? I use Eaagle and I can’t see any way to edit the symbols. In fact I was trying to get symbol accurate dimentions but I could not figure out how to do that? I mean there must be a place where each part is described with exact coordinates, etc
May be you guys use more of a hot-shot CAD software but my Eagle doesn’t seem to have such advance features… or I am not good at it to that level
~B
Greetings (Still No First name Supplied),
You're kidding, right? The Library Editor feature inds18s20:
I agree that edited symbols will work best but how do you edit those? I use Eaagle and I can’t see any way to edit the symbols.May be you guys use more of a hot-shot CAD software but my Eagle doesn’t seem to have such advance features… or I am not good at it to that level
EAGLE is one of the strong points. I seldom do a
new PCB design without creating new library parts
(well, much of it is “cut n’ paste”…)
If you’d like to invest an hour in a tutorial, try [this one.
What is your first name?
Comments Welcome!](Page not found - Seattle Pacific University)
Peter,
Thanks for the wonderful tutorial. Its great and yes, I do need to invest some time into learning Eagle,
This is Boyan!
Thanks again
~B