Re: gEDA-user: Silkscreen over pads

[Randall Nortman <geda-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Mon, Jan 30, 2006 at 11:28:28AM -0500, Stuart Brorson wrote:
[...]
> Nonetheless, I wouldn't recommend sending them boards to fab in the
> future.  Their software doesn't seem to work well with the Gerber
> exported by PCB.  I wonder if their mfg software has problems with
> other CAD tools also? The best vendor I have used for PCB designs is
> Advanced Circuits (www.4pcb.com); I think other people on this list
> will second this recommendation.   

I've seen that recommendation before as well, but the problem is that
Advanced Circuits is enormously more expensive than the cheap guys, at
least in the quantities I deal in.  When pcbfabexpress.com gives you 5
4-layer boards for $33 each (or 5 2-layer boards for $19 ea.), it's
hard to justify paying much more.  I've only had good experiences with
them.  I switched to PCBExpress this time because it was for a
quantity of 20 boards, and they're cheaper at that quantity, and also
way way cheaper than Advanced Circuits.  Perhaps I shall have to
consider other options for larger quantity orders.  (I'm going to be
doing 80-100 in the next order probably -- perhaps Advanced Circuits
will be competitive at that quantity.)

I will give them the details on my problem and see what they say.
It's hard to imagine what sort of software they could be using that
would ignore the deletions, and how that same software would not have
problems with other CAD packages.

-- 
Randall