Re: gEDA-user: PCB to G-CODE export GUI

[Peter Clifton <pcjc2@xxxxxxxxx>]

On Sun, 2009-11-15 at 11:43 +0100, Alberto Maccioni wrote:
> Hello,
> I wrote a new exporter GUI to convert PCB drawings to G-CODE in order
> to mill pcbs directly; is anyone interested in testing it?

I'm interested to know how it works.. specifically how it gets around
this problem...

PCB's primitives are round capped line segments - you can't just trace
around them.. otherwise your router cuts into the adjacent line segment.
  _______
 / \     \  
|\_/|____/
|   | 
|   |
|   |
 \_/

Presumably you have to collect a set of contours tracing each object on
the board in order to drive the router.

It seems like quite a complex task to achieve. I suspect that if _I_
were doing it, I would use PCB's polygon routines to add polygon
representations of each object in a given layer.

The result would be (assuming it doesn't segfault ;)), a set of polygon
representations for each piece of copper on a layer. You could then set
your GCODE to step out, or in - from those contours by the width of your
router. (Although the instep bit isn't trivial of course!)


Regarding the above problem though.. it reminds me of a funny story
about my girlfriend - which I'll share here..

I was cutting out shapes from paper with a new scalpel I'd just got from
the art-shop and I let Sarah have a go (she didn't like the boring
shapes I was cutting out).. She decided to cut out a star, and ended up
with 5 triangles and a pentagon ;)

ASCII art isn't so good with pentagons.. I'll pretend it was a 6-pointed
star.

     /\
____/__\____
\  /    \  /
 \/      \/
 /\      /\
/__\____/__\
    \  /
     \/

Best wishes,

Peter C




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