Re: gEDA-user: Postscript PCB lines

[DJ Delorie <dj@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> Dj, I looked a lot at your files. The result is absolutelly
> awesome. I didnt understood what are those fat black lines around
> the design.

Alignment marks.  When you do a double sided board with toner
transfer, you need them.  Or you can use them to put down a strip of
masking tape to act as an "edge guide" to help position your board.

You don't have to print them if you don't want to.  If you don't print
the outline (another option), you should print them, so you know where
your board is.

> Maybe it is strange to you, because AFAIK you allways made your
> boards from the gerber files, but it is cheaper to me made my boards
> from the ps files

I've used the PS files to make boards before.

> the films in another print bureau that only accepts gerbers, but I
> dont know why when I have a line on the silk over a pad, those
> prints dont cut the

We've talked about that.  PCB was assuming it could clip silk, but the
fabs don't really support that.  I've changed HID so that it prints
silk over pads on the screen, which is what the fabs do anyway, and
it's up to you (and drc?) to avoid that.  The PS files will have silk
over pads now too.  I wish PCB could deal with it automatically, but
until someone adds the heavy math to just not print silk where it's
not wanted, this is the best we can do.

> So, what I will say is not a must have, but is just a sugestion: to
> have an option on the print dialog, to print in one file or separate
> file (please, inside an directory), I think that is better to have
> more options.

I'll add it to the list.

> Anyway, the work you are doing is absolutelly awesome. I am just
> afraid about if the work you are doing in Lesstif will be usefull,
> because IMHO the Lesstif are tremendous ugly and outdated. But its
> just great.

Have you tried it?  Lesstif is neither ugly nor outdated, it's just
not what you're used to.

And the whole point of HID is that YOU get to choose which gui you
use, and everything else stays the same.  Both GUIs use the same print
engine, the same gerber plotter, the same autorouter, etc.