Re: gEDA-user: Two questions about pcb.

[DJ Delorie <dj@delorie.com>]

> The fab drawing will then show the center line of the path as the
> board outline.
>
> You really should make a gerber file that has only the route too,
> but at the moment this isn't automatic because the gerber for that
> group will show all the pin and via pads too.

I designed the fab drawing based on what 4pcb's techs wanted.  It has
exactly what they asked for - 10 mil outline on centers, drill
symbols, project info, gerber format.  If you do a gerber without some
sort of index (this is what the drill symbols are for) it's useless to
them because they can't correlate it with the other layers (unless you
tell them to trust the gerber coordinates and skip that validation
step).

I don't see what a separate route-only gerber would provide.

What I *did* want to do at some point is provide a CNC milling file
for the board outline, which would let the fab shop skip the tech
completely.  But, that's a *completely* different problem, as you have
to figure in bit skew and such.