On 05:45 AM 22/10/2001 -0400, Brian Guralnick said: >Hi all, > > I'm preparing some mechanical drawings in Protel so that a plastic > mold designer >can have a reference for items on one of my PCBs. I'm exporting Metric >.DXF drawing. >To test, I re-import the .DXF on a new PCB and find that some border lines are >completely in the wrong place. > > Is it the export, or import which is messing up? > Is there a more secure, error free format for export to a cad format > for the >plastic mold guys? > >____________ >Brian Guralnick
Many people say that doing DXF via Camtastic has a better chance of success. My recipe for DXF/DWG export consists of : 1) Making a copy of the PCB (using save-as) and then removing any unnecessary layers (such as planes etc and leaving (maybe) the outer copper layers only). 2) Globally setting virtually everything to zero thickness ***especially*** dimensions, coordinates and mechanical layer details including board outline. This ensures good snap points in the CAD package. 3) Removal of as many holes/vias and pads as possible as they are rendered pretty horribly when Protel attempts to fill them in. On a particularly troublesome board I will generate gerbers (after point 3) and then use Camtastic to do the DXF/DWG export. On import I explode any and all large radius arcs into multiple line segments as Protel has problems with these. And even then there are usually problems. I have had more repeatable success using Camtastic to create gerbers from the DXF and then import those into Protel. I am not sure of the status of the DXF/DWG server but I have certainly sent files through to Protel support showing problems but I am not sure if the bugs have been fixed. There were some bug fixes when the changes to allow the units to be forced was introduced - this certainly fixed a large number of import issues. I would like the following export options to be available: 1) Export selected only 2) Export in draft mode They should not be mutually exclusive of course. Hooroo, Ian Wilson * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * To post a message: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * To leave this list visit: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/leave.html * * Contact the list manager: * mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Forum Guidelines Rules: * http://www.techservinc.com/protelusers/forumrules.html * * Browse or Search previous postings: * http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
