Re: gEDA-user: non-round PCB pins

["harry eaton" <bumpelo@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Most fab shops can route from a gerber file. The trick is to get pcb to make
a gerber file with only the route path.
Presently this is somewhat ugly.

What I have done is devote a copper layer to the router. When I'm finished
with the layout I draw the router tool
path on this layer. Then I save the design and make the gerber files for the
board. Next I turn off visibility of
the router layer and turn on visibility of all pins, vias and silk then
delete everything visible (easy if nothing is locked).
Then I print gerbers again (which only prints the router file). I make sure
to not save the layout with stuff
deleted.

The reason you need to delete pins and vias is that they appear on every
layer but you don't want them in the
router output.

harry
----- Original Message -----
From: "Dan McMahill" <dan@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <geda-user@xxxxxxxx>
Sent: Monday, February 07, 2005 8:41 PM
Subject: Re: gEDA-user: non-round PCB pins


> On Mon, Feb 07, 2005 at 01:54:31PM -0800, Matt Ettus wrote:
> > I asked my PCB vendor and got this response --
> >
> > ====
> > What CAD do you use for design of the board? Please use mechanical layer
for
> > layout of the mill-out if you use Protel.  Please uese .mil file if you
use
> > Eagle. Just examples. Thanks.
> > ====
> >
> > How should I do this in PCB?
>
> do those layers generate gerber files?
>
> Right now there really isn't a way that I know of in PCB to have some
extra
> layer associated with an element.
>
> > Thanks,
> > Matt
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 21:00:01 -0500, Charles Lepple <clepple@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> > > On Fri, 4 Feb 2005 17:32:36 -0800, Matt Ettus <boyscout@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
> > > > I need to make a PCB footprint for a component which has several
> > > > "pins" which are actually metal tabs about 1/8" long.  Any ideas how
> > > > to do this?
> > >
> > > Do you want to solder the tabs to plated slots in the board? If so,
> > > you may want to ask the PCB shop how they would like to see the slot
> > > represented in the gerber and drill files.
> > >
> > > Some places will mill a slot between two drill hits if you call that
> > > out on the fab drawing, but they may have a minimum size for the
> > > narrow dimension of the slot.
> > >
> > > If you're wave soldering the parts, you could get away with two or
> > > even one drill hole to fit the width of the tab. This would be a pain
> > > to rework, though, because of the sheer volume of solder that would
> > > collect between the tab and the plated sides.
> > >
> > > --
> > > - Charles Lepple
> > >
> >
>
> --