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Negative printing support

e14 Contributor

Hi, guys!

I've been using EAGLE since 4.16 version as a hobbyist and bought

non-profit license some time ago. Making PCBs with EAGLE and "laser printer

and iron" is just perfect and there are very few things that can be added

in there. But when I decided to "upgrade" to photoresist method I faced a

strong problem. Here (in Russia) it's much easy to get negative photoresist

since it's more popular among PCB manufactures. And getting a negative

template from EAGLE became an endless disaster for me (and, as I figured

out after some googling - not only for me).

I found some workarounds like:

1. use CAM job to output to "PS_INVERTED" device and get a PostScript

inverted image file - fail. It ignores everything placed on pads and output

pads as they are in libraries. That will not suites hobbyists since it's

very difficult to drill "regular" pads and they have to be enlarged (I

place vias with a big outer diameter and small inner for center drill

manually drilling the PCB). Even drill-aid script isn't working.

2. print to a PostScipt file with a regular Print dialog. Than, you have to

invert a needed part of sheet manually or use some other tools (I've tried

Imagemagick set). By manually inverting you loose time, lots of time. If

using scripts, you face some problems, that are very difficult to solve:

very hard to figure out what area to invert (for the script), and very hard

to make a new blank file with inverted image with a correct size/resolution

and hard to place PCB dawning on it. And all methods are anyway leads to

quality loss and some toolchain/third-party software on you hard drive -

fail.

3. use the exp2image script to get a png image. Easy to use, but very hard

to print because of placement troubles and resolution/scale/size

discrepancy. And external mirroring needed anyway. A print, got by that

method anyway differs from a print, that can be made with a "regular" print

command or printing to PostScript. It's almost OK for small PCBs, but will

make garbage for PCBs at least 10 cm by any dimension - fail.

 

If you search through the forum, you can find many questions about how to

print in negative. I think, it's a good time for fixing that issue.

 

And sure, there is a nice and clear solution: add "Negative" checkbox to

the printing dialog of the program. It will illuminate all the pains of

hobbyists, trying to make a negative template. So, all the options, that

are so helpful like image position predefinition (Alignment), Mirror,

Rotating and Black with "Invert" will make a perfect and comprehensive

software for those part of EAGLE users, that using it at home and don't

order PCBs in pcbhouses, but make them thyself. And even to improve it, a

border width edit should be added under "Negative" checkbox, so users can

set black border around Dimension line, that will became "white" after

inverting - for the sake of comfort.

-

 

P.S. I'm a week of searching an easy and suitable way of getting negatives

from EAGLE and steal in progress.

P.P.S. As I work for well known here software company, I know that you may

think it's a minor request and there are lots of urgent stuff to do, but

usability is that thing that should be thought about. By fixing that

request you will make life of hobbyists much and much easy and more

pleasant, especially if you are offering a special license for nonprofits.

Thank you.

--

Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

 

Parents

  • Yah, that what I sought before this topic. And I'm not the only one

    suffering from missing negative printing. I'm not saying that printing a

    negative template is impossible, I'm using GIMP and printing to .ps right

    now and it gives me perfect prints. I'm just saying that this is not to be

    in that way, because it's the feature people need. Sure, we can use some

    other software to do the work. And sure, some of us can even use some other

    CADs to do the job. CADs that capable of printing inverted image without

    playing tambourine before that mythic process. I've wrote a complete

    'guide' describing why all existing methods suck.

     

    "..not add every silly little feature whenever some whining hobbyist can't

    spell "pixel"." - go and google for negative printing from EAGLE and you

    will see that MANY people need that "feature" without any external

    software.

    --

    Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

     

Reply

  • Yah, that what I sought before this topic. And I'm not the only one

    suffering from missing negative printing. I'm not saying that printing a

    negative template is impossible, I'm using GIMP and printing to .ps right

    now and it gives me perfect prints. I'm just saying that this is not to be

    in that way, because it's the feature people need. Sure, we can use some

    other software to do the work. And sure, some of us can even use some other

    CADs to do the job. CADs that capable of printing inverted image without

    playing tambourine before that mythic process. I've wrote a complete

    'guide' describing why all existing methods suck.

     

    "..not add every silly little feature whenever some whining hobbyist can't

    spell "pixel"." - go and google for negative printing from EAGLE and you

    will see that MANY people need that "feature" without any external

    software.

    --

    Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.

     

Children
  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    grubber wrote on Sat, 12 February 2011 16:07

    And I'm not the only one suffering from missing negative printing.

     

    Oh gimme a break.  You're "suffering" because you either have to spend 3

    seconds typing a command to invert a image file, or set up Eagle with the

    white background before exporting a image file!?  If you really care that

    much, you should be able to write a simple Eagle script that sets the

    background to white, enables only the layers that result in top copper,

    then exports the image file.

     

    Quote:

    I'm not saying that printing a negative template is impossible,

     

    Good thing, since it's downright trivial.

     

    Quote:

    I'm using GIMP and printing to .ps right now and it gives me perfect

    prints.

     

    Wait, all this whining and you actually have it working perfectly!?

     

    Quote:

    Sure, we can use some other software to do the work. And sure, some of

    us can even use some other CADs to do the job. CADs that capable of

    printing inverted image without playing tambourine before that mythic

    process. I've wrote a complete 'guide' describing why all existing

    methods suck.

     

    Did you bother to look at what I did as a example?  It was really easy.  I

    probably could have written a Eagle script to do it in one command if I

    really cared.

     

    Quote:

    "..not add every silly little feature whenever some whining hobbyist

    can't spell "pixel"." - go and google for negative printing from EAGLE

    and you will see that MANY people need that "feature" without any

    external software.

     

    I didn't look, but at best that will show a list of clueless morons that

    are too lazy to read the manual or too dumb to know how to flip a image

    file.  They don't "need" this, they're just too dumb to realize how easy it

    already is to do it.

     

    Did you even try using the white background in the board editor before

    exporting a image file?  I didn't try it, but I think that will get you

    what you want totally within Eagle.

    --

    Web access to CadSoft support forums at www.eaglecentral.ca.  Where the CadSoft EAGLE community meets.