Pads and Nets both red, so I'm a little confused.

On 04/21/2014 01:10 PM, David Henry wrote:

I made a simple PCB that involves surface mounting large components

(.15x.076 pads), and noticed that both the pads and net connections are

all red in the Board Editor.  I just wanted to make sure that this is

ok, and that the pads are actually above the surface for soldering, and

the net connections are non-exposed inside the board.  Silly question I

know, but just wanted to make sure before paying for the PCB.  (this

would be my second pcb, but the last one was like 6 years ago so I'm

rusty). 

David,

Unless you've changed the default colors, red represent copper on the

top layer (layer 1).  If you mirror the package on the board, the pads

will turn blue indicating that they're on the bottom copper layer (layer

16).

You can turn on the tStop layer to see where the solder mask has been

pulled back from the pad.  This area should be slightly larger than the

copper pad.  You can also turn on the tCream layer which indicates where

solder paste should be applied.  It should be slightly smaller than the

pad itself.

As a verification step, I display the gerber files produced by the CAM

Processor in a viewer like gerbv.  The source code is available on

SourceForge as is a binary for Win32.

There are also a handful of associated programs available from gerbv's

home page at http://gerbv.geda-project.org/ .

HTH,

    - Chuck

Hi,

I just wanted to make sure that this is

ok, and that the pads are actually above the surface for soldering, and

the net connections are non-exposed inside the board.

As a verification step, I display the gerber files produced by the CAM

Processor in a viewer like gerbv.

I use gerbv and have used other viewiers including gc-preview.

There are also a handful of associated programs available from gerbv's

home page at http://gerbv.geda-project.org/ .

If you'd rather not install a gerber viewer then I suggest trying an

online tool like GerbLook http://gerblook.org to generate .png images

from the gerber files.

Regards

Neil

I think it would help for me to use Gerbv to get an additional view of the board.  I am trying to use it now, but there are so many Cam Processor options that I'm not sure what to do to export the file for Gerbv... when I run the Cam Processor, can you tell me what device to select, and what extension to use when I save the file?

It's really a simple board and I think it's ok.  I might just send it in and find out if I can't figure out Gerbv.

Chuck, I turned on tStop and tCream and all looks well.  I'm surprised those layers aren't on by default.  I'll also try to figure out Gerbv.  Really appreciate it  Thanks.

On 24/04/14 03:22, sotomo wrote:

I think it would help for me to use Gerbv to get an additional view of

the board.  I am trying to use it now, but there are so many Cam

Processor options that I'm not sure what to do to export the file for

Gerbv... when I run the Cam Processor, can you tell me what device to

select, and what extension to use when I save the file?

 

There are several pre-defined "jobs" distributed with Eagle, including

an excellon and a gerb274x one. These are the two that you need to run:

excellon for the drills and gerb274x for the copper/mask/silk Gerbers.

That said, you probably want to tweak them a little to suit your

preferred naming conventions and so on. If your preferred board house

accepts Eagle data directly then this doesn't matter so much, but more

traditional PCB makers want the Gerber/Excellon files so you need to get

them right. For my board house I added a "component placement" section

for each side (as silk screen plus xDoc layers, for placement diagrams)

and removed any mirroring (which may be the current default anyway - I

was on V4.15 at the time).

Hope that helps,

Rob