Re: gEDA-user: Newby experiences with the pcb layout tool

[Kai-Martin Knaak <kmk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Thu, 31 Jul 2008 12:05:17 +0200, Juergen Harms wrote:

> Problems:
> - I had quite frequent problems adding points to a polygon - but no
> serious problem, saving and re-starting pcb always helped

can you be a bit more specific on how to reproduce the problems?


> - There is no way to have non-copper holes (even adding 0x08 to the
> flags does not help) - forget it

The flag "hole" will produce a metal less hole. Example:
http://www.gedasymbols.org/user/kai_martin_knaak/footprints/mechanical/hole_m3.fp


> - Silkscreen text: this is the only problem I really regret. The text
> generated is so fat and clumsy, that it becomes more or less unreadable
> in small fonts. On the quit small pcb I made, I ended up refraining from
> using text.

There is a parameter min-silk which controls the minimum width of lines 
on silk.

If you use the GTK-GUI:
File - Preferences - Sizes - Design_Rule_checking - minimum_silk_width

You can set the default value of the parameter in $HOME/.pcb/preferences .

 
> - Library configuration: I tried to use File->Preferences->Library to
> add my own libraries - did not succeed, needed to import via
> buffer-import.

This works over here. Maybe a typo? You need to restart pcb to make
changes effective.
 
 
> 3. Wishes
> 
> - Be able to export directly to Gerber

Menu "file - export_layout" should present you a list of buttons with 
gerber on second place. 


> - I presently export the .pcb
> files to a windows system and use the GC-Preview tool from ...

You mean, GC-Preview can read *.pcb files? 


> - Avoid getting non-significant warning messages when you do a Design
> Rule Check (as it happens with mount-holes, where you get 2 messages
> each that the ring is too small).

This is a known problem. DRC is one of the not so shiny areas of 
pcb and even more so in gschem.


> How about adding a flag to the element
> description that makes DRC skip the check of that element? would be a
> somewhat general solution.

sounds good to me. 


> - Be more flexible with paths wher pcb-generated output goes - for
> instance for placing the gerber files 

This confuses me. I got the impression you missed the gerber export 
feature... You can add a prefix to the filename when exporting.
However, this is not remembered over sessions. 


> through to the ultimate test of sending the .gwk file to the layout
> manufacturer.

I usually send the *.gbr files and the *cnc files zipped together in 
a single *.zip. My preferred fab is basista. pcb-pool and others 
have also been reportetd to work without problems. You may search 
the archive of this mailing list. 

Welcome to the club of pcb users!

---<(kaimartin)>---
-- 
Kai-Martin Knaak
http://lilalaser.de/blog



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