> Why don't rotated free pads photo plot? > > Sean James They *do* photoplot, or at least *should* always photo plot. (And if you have ever found any occasion when one or more pads have not been photoplotted, then you have found a bug; in that regard, it is already known that pads on Mechanical layers are not photoplotted if the Mechanical layer concerned is selected for inclusion in all plots, and the Gerber file was created from a *different* layer.)
However, rotated pads (and fills) are usually "drawn" rather than "flashed" within Gerber files, and that has an impact upon the size of the Gerber file; it takes a smaller number of characters to specify that an aperture is "flashed" in a particular location, compared with specifying that an aperture is to be "drawn" between a start location and an "end" location (and perhaps one or more intermediate locations). (I recall discovering, while experimenting, that Protel 99 SE "draws" pads, rather than "flashing" these, even when the angle of rotation is 90 or 270 degrees (or even 180 degrees as well?). However, there is no good reason why such pads can't be "flashed".) The other aspect of "drawing" rotated pads and fills is that the shapes of these are typically approximated (when the angle of rotation is not an integral multiple of 90 degrees), rather than being photoplotted in an exact fashion. As Abdulrahman Lomax has pointed out in another post, it is possible for Aperture Macro definitions to specify an angle of rotation; *if* appropriate Aperture Macro definitions were used, rotated pads and fills then*could* be acurately photoplotted. However, at present, the only time that Protel uses Aperture Macro definitions in Gerber files is for thermal relief patterns (used in Gerber files produced from the internal Power Plane layers). I am hoping that various aspects of Gerber files will be rectified in Phoenix (the current name for the next version of Protel). Observations on rotated pads and fills (with non-orthogonal angles) have been relatively recent, and thus risk not being rectifed, but various other aspects are also worthy of attention, and have been pointed out for some time now... Regards, Geoff Harland. ----------------------------- E-Mail Disclaimer The Information in this e-mail is confidential and may be legally privileged. It is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this e-mail by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Any opinions or advice contained in this e-mail are confidential and not for public display. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * 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] * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
