Re: gEDA-user: a pcb level panelizer tool

[Rick Collins <erudite999@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:40 PM 9/16/2008, you wrote:

> > This repeats the rest of
> the G-codes into an array of 2 x 11 with a 
> > spacing of 5 x 1.1 inches.
>
> Plain old grid panels are, in my experience, rare.  More likely
> I'm
> mixing multiple projects onto a single panel so I can etch them all
> at
> once.

I didn't realize that was what you do.  I never have that
need.  I do production work and always need multiple panels to
complete a job.  So there is no point to putting more than one board
on a panel.  


> If you just want as
> many of one board as fit in a panel, most fabs can
> do that for you without you having to worry about how much space to
> leave between them to compensate for *their*
> process.

The fab house doesn't care about board spacing.  That depends on
your board layout and the assembly house.  Other than the width of
the rout around the board, the board fab house has no interest in how you
space them out. 


> > As to
> "tweeking" drill sizes, I don't get what you mean.  Why
> would I 
> > want to tweek a drill size on just one of N boards in a
> panel?
>
> No, I tweak every single one of them all at once, in batch, to match
> my process.  In my case, I set all the drill sizes to 8 mil to act
> as
> a "drill helper" for my manual drilling
> setup.

Ok, so you are doing this stuff by hand as a small project.  That is
very different from the production work I do.  My goal is to
automate as much as possible and to eliminate any sort of manual work,
including running script files.  The more you rely on the user to
process the outputs, the more likely a mistake is.  When making
hundreds of boards at a time, any mistake can be costly. 


> > Once you have
> done the panelize step, any changes require you to
> > delete all work of panelizing and do it again after you make
> the
> > change.
>
> Er, not really.  My scripts merge a placement PCB with the
> original
> PCBs to form a combined panel PCB.  So, I do all the
> panel-related
> editing (outlines, alignment marks, board placement) on the
> placement
> panel, then merge the projects into them.  If I have to edit a
> *design*, I do so, then re-merge the panel.
>
> The panel post-processing I do for my etch is done in batch, and can
> be scripted.

That's great.  But for straight forward work of building a panel of
the same board repeated, there is no point to using scripts when the
layout tool should produce the Gerber files for you. 


> > Shouldn't the
> software deal with that for you by just allowing you
> > to specify the panel rather than creating it by copying
> stuff?
>
> I think you're being naive about what a "panel" can be. 
> It's much
> more than just a simple grid of one board.

I can be naive about a lot of things.  I just didn't know you were
doing that kind of work...   For the work I do, I need tools
that facilitate productivity and minimize the risk of errors.  I
prefer to use tools that do the job simply and effectively without
unnecessary manual steps.  I think a step and repeat option should
be in any good layout tool.  

Rick


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