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Re: gEDA-user: solder stencil in drafting acetate
Hi Dave,
I'm working on a DXF exporter as of december 2006.
The last months I have been too busy at the day job, so I made ample
progress.
Hope to pick this one up next week and finish it this spring, although I
only have a maximum of 2 hours per day to spend on coding and have just
a little bit more time in the weekends.
I'm aiming the dxf output to conform to the older AutoCAD Release 14
level (~1998) which can be run on older hardware and windoze 98.
The R14 DXF version has some more entities as the R12/R13 DXF version,
and should be able to hold all pcb entities (lines, arcs, polygons).
There are some caveats in AutoCAD on how to translate the pcb trace
entities into a neat DXF entity.
Another one is how to handle aperture shapes (round, square,
octagon, ...).
If you want to help getting this exporter running and add it to pcb
please let me know, some help coding and someone to look at code and
prevent me from falling into pits is always welcome.
I could send you a tarball by private e-mail, it's about 56 kB.
I have documentation about the various dxf entities as well.
Kind regards,
Bert Timmerman.
On Sat, 2007-03-31 at 09:04 -0800, Dave N6NZ wrote:
> A while back we had a short discussion about doing cheap solder stencils
> in drafting acetate using a laser cutter. As it turns out, I have
> access to a laser cutter at the TechShop http://www.techshop.ws/ so I
> gave it a try.
>
> I took the postscript check plot for the paste layer, and converted it
> to .dxf using pstoedit (available under GPL). Then, I tweaked using QCAD
> (available under GPL). Tweaks were simply removing the board outline
> and adding index holes for a fixture I might build some day. Then, I
> laser cut the .dxf into Clear-Lay brand 5 mil drafting acetate. Power
> levels were tweaky, and I think I should pre-shrink the pads to account
> for excess "meltage" at the edges, but I have successfully assembled two
> boards using my paste stencil, which I reflowed in a toaster oven.
> Smallest parts were 0603 and 0.8mm lead pitch TQFP.
>
> Anyway, I declare the experiment a success. Anybody that wants the
> cook-book details is welcome to them.
>
> It would be nice if I could do this direct from the gerber for the paste
> layer. I was wondering how hard it would be to tweak gerbv to output
> vectors for pad edges? I'd be willing to hack in a .dxf exporter if I
> had a road-map and a little advice.
>
> And, while I'm posting... I have a line on an old laser cutter that I
> might buy. I'm wondering how many other pcb users would be interested
> in a plastic stencil cutting service?
>
> -dave
>
>
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