Can't run CAM job

Your board is so simple that it didn't take long to produce the Gerbers.

Check your directory to see if the Gerber files have been created. You can

verify the correctness of the Gerbers using GC-Prevue, Gerbv, etc.

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I've looked for any generated files, but I can't find them. That's why I posted here.

It seems I didn't need the CAM files anyway because I was able to order a PCB with just the board file. But, in the future, I might need to generate CAM files though.

Hi Michael

It sounds to me like it ran fine but possibly wasn't set up correctly or didn't put things where you expected. Where are you looking for the generated files? Did you specify the correct CAM job? If so, is the output file location specified in the CAM job you loaded where you think it is?

Could you give us a screen grab of your CAM processor screen and/or maybe put your .brd and .cam files up here so we can try ourselves and see what is going on?

Best Regards,

Rachael

Hi Michael

It sounds to me like it ran fine but possibly wasn't set up correctly or didn't put things where you expected. Where are you looking for the generated files? Did you specify the correct CAM job? If so, is the output file location specified in the CAM job you loaded where you think it is?

Could you give us a screen grab of your CAM processor screen and/or maybe put your .brd and .cam files up here so we can try ourselves and see what is going on?

Best Regards,

Rachael

I finally found the gerbers. I enlarged the CAM processor dialog box to full screen and was able to see the full address of where the files were going. How do I designate where I want the files to go?

Thanks,

Mike

On 1/25/2017 5:24 PM, Michael Levin wrote:

I finally found the gerbers. I enlarged the CAM processor dialog box to full screen and was able to see the full address of where the files were going. How do I designate where I want the files to go?

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

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Hi Mike,

In general, it's easier to use the %N placeholders since these will save

the gerbers to the same location as your schematic and board file. This

will make the CAM job reusable which in my opinion is simpler.

Near the middle you'll a button that says file and field next to it.

That's where you specify the location by clicking the file button.

If you look at the default jobs you'll notice they all have %N in that

field followed by an extension.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

CadSoft Guest wrote:

 

On 1/25/2017 5:24 PM, Michael Levin wrote:

I finally found the gerbers. I enlarged the CAM processor dialog box to full screen and was able to see the full address of where the files were going. How do I designate where I want the files to go?

 

Thanks,

Mike

 

--

To view any images and attachments in this post, visit:

https://www.element14.com/community/message/214307

 

 

Hi Mike,

 

In general, it's easier to use the %N placeholders since these will save

the gerbers to the same location as your schematic and board file. This

will make the CAM job reusable which in my opinion is simpler.

 

Near the middle you'll a button that says file and field next to it.

That's where you specify the location by clicking the file button.

 

If you look at the default jobs you'll notice they all have %N in that

field followed by an extension.

 

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

 

Best Regards,

Jorge Garcia

 

Hi Mike,

I agree with Jorge, the only thing different I would do is create a manufacturing folder in the folder containing the board files and set your CAM job to save it's outputs to that sub folder. Then you can zip that folder up easily to send to your board house. If it's in the same directory as your .sch and .pcb and whatever else you have there then you have to manually go select all the gerber files to add to a zip to send to the board manufacturer.

Best Regards,

Rachael

I'm sorry Jorge, but I don't know what you mean by "%N placeholder". Your's and Rachael's suggestions are good ones and I plan to implement them. When I created a Project for that prototyping board, Eagle created a folder called "eagle" in my Documents folder. The Gerbers went to a folder nested deep within my Users folder. I want to develop better organization skills for future projects, so it makes sense to put the projects in the same place as the Examples that come with Eagle. Should I just copy and paste the project folder and put it in that location? I used to have a couple older versions of Eagle, but I lost those programs when my PC crashed some months ago. I'm guessing the old settings influenced this new version of Eagle.

Michael Levin wrote:

 

I'm sorry Jorge, but I don't know what you mean by "%N placeholder".

From the help for the CAM processor:

 

Placeholders

The output file name can either be entered directly, or can be dynamically composed using placeholders. A placeholder consists of a percentage character ('%') followed by a letter. The following placeholders are defined:

 

%D{xxx}		a string that is inserted only into the data file name
%E		the loaded file's extension (without the '.')
%H		the user's home directory
%I{xxx}		a string that is inserted only into the info file name
%L		the layer range for blind&buried vias (see below)
%N		the loaded file's name (without path and extension)
%P		the loaded file's directory path (without file name)
%%		the character '%'

For example, the output file definition

%N.cmp%I{.info}

would create boardname.cmp for the data file and boardname.cmp.info for the info file (in case the selected output device generates an info file).

So what I would have in my CAM job file for the component side Gerber output file is something like: %P/manufacturing/%N.cmp

Repeat this with a different extension for each Gerber you need to output from the CAM processor. I have a number of CAM processor files for different board layer counts.

Michael Levin wrote:

 

I want to develop better organization skills for future projects, so it makes sense to put the projects in the same place as the Examples that come with Eagle. Should I just copy and paste the project folder and put it in that location?

You could copy and paste things to where the examples are but for me that's not ideal. I like to have my projects located somewhere relevant to my workflow. Similarly with all the libraries I create, ULP's etc. I have my own folder for all the ones I create and I update all the paths in the Control Panel -> Options -> Directories to additionally point to my own files. The exception is the library directory location where I completely remove the reference to the bundled libraries as to me they are of no use and point just to my own libraries.

Best Regards,

Rachael