At 11:10 AM 1/24/03 +1100, Sean Alcorn - PIC Stuff wrote: >Hi all, > >When sending off prototype boards, it would be desirable to bundle a >few different boards into the one board or Gerber files. The board >house can then just process as one board. However, if you design say, 4 >boards in EAGLE, then go try to Copy - Oh, I mean "Cut" and "Paste" >those 4 boards into one large board file, then all the component names >will automatically increment. > >For example, if you have a board with 10 resistors called R1 through >R10 and you paste another complete board beside it, the resistors in >the new board will automatically be renamed R11 onwards. Talk to the people who make your boards. I have the same problem - here's how I deal with it: 1) create each board as its own file, save. 2) block select each board and save each block copy as a separate macro 3) generate the silk-screen Gerber file for each board. 4) Use the CAD program to combine the block macro copies into 1 file. 5) Generate all the Gerber files for the combined file, including the silkscreen. 6) Send all the files off to the board house. The board house uses the silkscreen file from the composite board as their guide when they combine the SS Gerber files from the individual boards into 1 film. The board people I use (S&P Flex Circuits, Nepean, Ontario, Canada (just outside Ottawa) say that this adds only about 1 extra minute to their processing time and they don't charge extra for the service. But it is important to send them the composite silkscreen file so they can get the individual files lined up properly. I also do this when getting prototype boards, except that the board house I use (APC, Calgary, AB, Canada) does not do silkscreen on their P1 service. So the SS text is irrelevant in their case anyways and I don't bother sending those Gerber files. dwayne -- Dwayne Reid Trinity Electronics Systems Ltd Edmonton, AB, CANADA (780) 489-3199 voice (780) 487-6397 fax Celebrating 18 years of Engineering Innovation (1984 - 2002) .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .-. .- `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' `-' Do NOT send unsolicited commercial email to this email address. This message neither grants consent to receive unsolicited commercial email nor is intended to solicit commercial email. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: The PICList is archived three different ways. See http://www.piclist.com/#archives for details.