Re: gEDA-user: Finished drawing two sided board in PCB. Any comment?

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> The problem is that PCB has autogenerated your board outline in the
> fab drawing assuming that it is the rectanglular drawing area.  PCB
> developers: this is a misfeature, IMHO.

If the user doesn't create an outline layer, we really don't have
anything else to go by.

> In commerical tools, you would have a separate layer calling out the
> board outline.  For PCB, you probably need to put a manual instruction
> somewhere for the fab house to route the boad along the silkscreen
> outline.

No, we have an outline layer also.  Maybe we need to *default* to
having one of the layers named "outline"?  But then people will think
we support less than 8 copper layers in rectangular boards.  Sigh.
Time for the >8 layer patch.

> If you can speak to an engineer at the fab house in person, that
> would help you clarify exactly what board outline you want.

The techs at AC gave me the info we use to generate the FAB gerbers
PCB spits out, provided you actually create an outline layer in PCB.

> Others, any opinions about how to create complex board outlines in
> PCB?

Rename one of the layers "outline" and draw a 10 mil trace where you
want the outline to be.  PCB will automatically use that to generate
the FAB drawing.