Re: gEDA-user: a pcb level panelizer tool

[Rick Collins <erudite999@xxxxxxxxx>]

At 11:02 PM 9/16/2008, you wrote:

> Hmmm... re-reading the thread,
> we are mainly talking about a regular
> panelizer.  Too many threads!  ;-)
>
> Why panelize in pcb?  It covers the drill file.  it lets you
> edit the
> panel before printing.  It's free and we already have it.  You
> can
> panelize more than one layout onto a single panel (you can't do that
> with plain step and repeat).  You can edit the boards while
> they're
> in-panel (for example, I tweak drills before printing).
>
> Panelizing by editing the gerbers is difficult to script, too, and a
> pain to maintain.  It's like trying to make corrections to a
> document
> by editing the postscript output.

I have not followed PCB enough to understand the issues with these tools,
but I wouldn't think that an output file would need to be edited. 
The file can be generated correctly in the first place.  Shouldn't
the tool generate the Gerber files as they are needed for building
panels?  This is all that is needed to be added by PCB...

G04 Step and Repeat for
panelization *
%SRX2Y11I5.000000J1.100000*%

This repeats the rest of the G-codes into an array of 2 x 11 with
a spacing of 5 x 1.1 inches.  

FreePCB has an option in the CAM output dialog to panelize the Gerber
files to be output.  Then the appropriate line or two of RS-274X
code can be output as part of the Gerber files.  One of the users of
FreePCB contributed a post layout tool to take an existing FreePCB file
and duplicate it in ways that would produce a full panel.  But I see
no point in doing this if the tool does it in the first place.  If
you tell the tool you want a panel it can display the layout showing the
full panel without having to actually put duplicated parts and traces
into the file.  This just bloats the file size, especially the size
of the Gerber files.  

As to "tweeking" drill sizes, I don't get what you mean. 
Why would I want to tweek a drill size on just one of N boards in a
panel?  In fact, this shows the problem with copying features to
panelize a board.  Once you have done the panelize step, any changes
require you to delete all work of panelizing and do it again after you
make the change.  Shouldn't the software deal with that for you by
just allowing you to specify the panel rather than creating it by copying
stuff?  

I don't know what PCB currently supports.  I just know how I expect
a layout program to work.  One of the problems with FreePCB is that
it doesn't provide all of the required files for fabrication and
assembly.  There doesn't seem to be a lot of interest in making it
do what is required.  Rather I get suggestions on how to hand edit
files to produce XYRS centroid files and such.  So for my next
project, I am looking for a tool that is more complete and works
efficiently (by that I mean does not require *ME* to do the kind of work
a computer can do). 

Rick


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