On Fri, Jul 5, 2013 at 1:00 AM, Bob Blick wrote: > All this stuff might work the same in version 9 but who knows. > >> #1 struggling to find how to add a board dimension in PADS. > > Since you'll be drawing directly into the PCB file, pick an appropriate > layer like "Assembly Drawing Top". Click on the drawing tools and do > some drawing. if you don't get anything visible when you draw something, > you'll need to choose a color "setup>displayColors". Then draw some > lines and add some text. The default grid will be too coarse so change > that, either with some menu or just type "g" to start entering the grid > directly. If you are in mils then "g10" will set you to a 10 mil grid. > >> #2 wondering how to output the resultant file in a way which I can send >> the >> Gerber to my PCB manufacturer. >> (The term Gerber seems a bit complicated to me since I don't know what >> format he wants. Though I have requested that part of the information >> from him) > > Create a CAM item for each output layer (copper, solder mask, paste > mask, silkscreen, drill) and then an assembly drawing with dimensions > and notes. All of them will be Gerber except for your drill file. > "File>CAM" then "Add". You'll want to start with your copper and that > will be a "Routing" layer. Create the top layer first, give it a name > like "layer1Copper" and most of the defaults should be OK. I would > suggest selecting "Options" and changing the "justification" to "offset" > of 2000 mils x and y. If you keep this consistent then all your layers > will line up nicely in a Gerber viewer. Run and save that layer, then do > all your other layers. Somehow, I waded till here. All the dimensioning that I see are in mils. Are there any options where I can see them in millimetres ? (Some option some place ? Or does it talk only mils) > Do all the needed layers like this, choosing the appropriate type > (paste, solder mask etc) except for the drill layer, for that choose "NC > Drill" and you will probably need to mess around with a few "device > setup" options, perhaps in the "Tool Section Start". But try the > defaults first. > > Now you'll have a bunch of ".pho" files which are your Gerber layers and > there will also be a ".drl" file which is your NC drill file. These > files will probably be in a directory like "padsProjects>CAM>default". > There will be a lot of other files in there that have similar names but > if everything is good you only need the six to ten .pho and the one .drl > file. I created the Top Layer for test. It did create a .pho file as you said. When you output a .pho file. It has some settings to output in different formats. I guess the output device should be a photoplotter ? Did proceed with the photoplotter option, as that seemed logical (?) I guess. > Get yourself a Gerber viewer like PentaLogi ViewMate and open all your > layers and if everything looks good and lines up you are good to go. Pay > particular attention to drills, they need to be the right size as well > as in the right place. I've had situations where some of the drill sizes > were right and some were an order of magnitude off. Also layers in > English units and drills in Metric! > I downloaded the free version of it. Tried to open the .pho file with it. But it looked that extension was not supported. But forcing it to use All files, did open up the Top layer in it. For the drill output, it has 2 options: ASCII, EIA-244. What option should I be looking at ? Any idea, how I can get both the board dimensioning and the drill to be in the same units. I hate these multi units dimensioning systems. Thanks for showing me the direction to the shore. Best Regards, Manu --=20 http://www.piclist.com/techref/piclist PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist .