gEDA-user: Line Thickness in Imported DXF Files; Rotating by Arbitrary Angle; UTF-8

[Gus Fantanas <fantanas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello all,

I have three questions/items for discussion. Two of these have been 
discussed before.

First, I am given a board outline in DXF format by a mechanical 
engineer. I can successfully convert it to pcb format (import it to 
qcad, print it as ps; convert it to encapsulated ps with 'ps2epsi'; 
convert it to pcb using 'pstoedit' with the '-usbbfrominput' and '-f 
pcb' options). However, when I finally import it to pcb, the original 
lines turn out very thick. I think they become thick when the original 
DXF file is imported to qcad. Is there any easy way to control the 
thickness of the imported lines across the whole conversion chain? As it 
stands now, I have to thin out each line imported from the DXF file by hand.

Second, in the past there were questions about rotating by arbitrary 
angle in pcb. (I think such questions were asked in 2005-2006.) In some 
of the responses back then it was claimed that rotations by arbitrary 
angles would adversely impact precision and gerber generation, so it 
should not be implemented. But recent postings on this board talk about 
introducing nm precision to pcb. With such precision, wouldn't rotations 
by arbitrary angles (at least 15Â increments) be feasible? Also, I have 
seen components rotated by other than 90Â in Allegro; the PCBs came out 
fine, so gerbers were generated properly. I don't quite understand why 
the gerber generator cares about component rotations.

Third, can pcb handle UTF-8 characters? On the silkscreen I want the Î 
character to appear (for Ohms, as in "50Î"). The text entry window 
accepts the Î just fine, but then the text on the silkscreen displays 
/two/ blocks for it. gschem seems to display Î in text and Î in values 
fine, but it may have trouble printing these characters.

I am using the gEDA version that came packaged with Ubuntu 11.04 
"Natty." Thank you in advance for your time.




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