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Panelize different board

e14 Contributor

Hello,

 

I know there are ULPs to make a panel composed of identical boards.

Sometimes I need to put together different designs in order to reduce

the tooling costs.

 

Is there an easy way to do this?

 

The best should be using the Gerber files.

I mean a simple program that allows you to load several boards, to place

them as you want and eventually adds the "bridges".

 

Thanks

Marco

 

Parents

  • Marco Trapanese schrieb:

     

    I know there are ULPs to make a panel composed of identical boards.

    Sometimes I need to put together different designs in order to reduce

    the tooling costs.

     

    Is there an easy way to do this?

     

    I often do this. Simply use GROUP, CUT and PASTE in the board editor.

    Take care to DISPLAY ALL layers before.

     

    If the resulting combined panel consists of several boards belonging to

    the same project, you can also generate the data for SMD stencil and P&P

    program from it. Then the panel is assembled as a whole and separated

    afterwards.

     

    The best should be using the Gerber files.

    I mean a simple program that allows you to load several boards, to place

    them as you want and eventually adds the "bridges".

     

    I fear that a "good" program able to do that is likely expensive. (The

    CAM tools of the board houses can do that, but I don't know of a free or

    low-cost solution to this that really works fine.)

     

    Tilmann

     

Reply

  • Marco Trapanese schrieb:

     

    I know there are ULPs to make a panel composed of identical boards.

    Sometimes I need to put together different designs in order to reduce

    the tooling costs.

     

    Is there an easy way to do this?

     

    I often do this. Simply use GROUP, CUT and PASTE in the board editor.

    Take care to DISPLAY ALL layers before.

     

    If the resulting combined panel consists of several boards belonging to

    the same project, you can also generate the data for SMD stencil and P&P

    program from it. Then the panel is assembled as a whole and separated

    afterwards.

     

    The best should be using the Gerber files.

    I mean a simple program that allows you to load several boards, to place

    them as you want and eventually adds the "bridges".

     

    I fear that a "good" program able to do that is likely expensive. (The

    CAM tools of the board houses can do that, but I don't know of a free or

    low-cost solution to this that really works fine.)

     

    Tilmann

     

Children
  • in reply to e14 Contributor

    Il 03/01/2013 11:17, Tilmann Reh ha scritto:

     

    I often do this. Simply use GROUP, CUT and PASTE in the board editor.

    Take care to DISPLAY ALL layers before.

     

     

    But how do you put the bridges among the boards? mmm, perhaps you put

    the boards very close each other so you'll ask for V-cut along the

    resulting contour path.

     

     

    I fear that a "good" program able to do that is likely expensive. (The

    CAM tools of the board houses can do that, but I don't know of a free or

    low-cost solution to this that really works fine.)

     

     

    I thought it shouldn't be very expensive - the gerber files are plain

    text and the software has just to translate and rotate the coordinates.

    But I see the CAM tools are very expensive, indeed!

     

    Marco