gEDA-user: PCB artwork output

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

Having just put together a board using PCB, I have a few queries about
its output facilities.

The electronics development people here fab using tracing paper and a UV
light box, so to achieve maximum quality output, I always mirror the
output such that the printed toner is oriented towards the copper of the
board, giving a nice crisp exposure outline.

PCB's auto-mirror option does the reverse of this, putting the toner
away from the copper, and ticking "mirror" as well as auto-mirror does
not reverse the behaviour.

The layer identification text automatically output by PCB does not
appear to mirror the same way, and the people in charge of PCB
production here were of the opinion that the text only confused which
way up the layer was supposed to be.

They just like us to put some text off-board, on each side which would
come out readable on the copper.

What is the intended interpretation of the layer identification text?
That it be readable as if looking through the board from the component
side? If so, perhaps we could annotate it as such? I can't think how
best to do that at the moment though. The pcb guy seemed to imply that
the automatic text from PCB was not as how other packages would do it.


A further feature request..

Is it possible to add a scale function to PCB's output, such that I can
make the .ps file say a few 0.1% (can't remember exactly) larger than
real size? The tracing paper shrinks as it passes through the laser
printer by a known amount, but when you finally print the .pdf (from
windows they do it), the scaling options aren't as fine-grained as that.

Many thanks,

-- 
Peter Clifton

Electrical Engineering Division,
Engineering Department,
University of Cambridge,
9, JJ Thomson Avenue,
Cambridge
CB3 0FA

Tel: +44 (0)7729 980173 - (No signal in the lab!)



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