Generating NC Drill files from Protel 99

Ok I’ve designed a PCB and it was attached to an order by a friend of mine to save on shipping, setup and what not, but my board failed on the Drill file.

Ok the inital problem was the “optimize change location” option. Although it was ticked in the screenshot posted in the sparkfun FAQ it generated files without X and Y co-ordinates on every line which can’t be handled.

Anyway before I try again and waste peoples time I was wondering which option to use for the leading and trailing zeros. Protel gives you:

  • Keep leading and trailing zeros

  • Surpress leading zeros

  • Surpress trailing zeros

To me it makes sense to surpress the leading ones, but once again the screenshot in the FAQ says surpress trailing ones.

Also my header looks slightly different from the one submitted by my mate. It includes the Fnn Snn option but both are zeroed. Will this be a problem?

The header and part of T01 with surpress leading zeros ticked:

M72
M48
T1F00S00C0.032
T2F00S00C0.028
T3F00S00C0.031
T4F00S00C0.039
T5F00S00C0.035
T6F00S00C0.122
T7F00S00C0.040
T8F00S00C0.060
T9F00S00C0.020
%
T01
X95Y646
X395Y646
X1130Y297
X1710Y317
X1740Y207
X2140Y207
X2890Y420
X2890Y520
X2890Y620