Why does Eagle print everything "thicker"?

Deniz Can Cigsar wrote:

I tried Eagle 5.11 on Windows XP, 6.1 on Mac Lion, and Windows XP..

Closed all layers but top layer.. The results are the same on Xerox

3140 printer.. Eagle prints everything a little thicker. The pads of

MLF package bridges, and the 10mil lines between SO8 package's pins 1

and 2 tends to bridge to the pin 1.. The calibration is OK, I printed

100mm x 100mm rectangle and its good enough..

 

I printed to pdf, and printed the pdf with Preview application on

macosx, this time the results are much better.. I would say "Oh, I

can do that way" but after comparing it with the same packaging, same

size that Proteus Ares produces, I saw that Proteus produces cleaner

results.. It looks like Eagle widens everything..

 

Should I configure anything other than "calibrate" and "black"

options on printer dialog?

 

Regards,

Deniz

Some thoughts.

Try a print to a printer with a higher resolution.

The Xerox 3140 printer has a native resolution of 600 x 600

The makes each dot 1.66 mil so and 5 mil trace could come out 6.4 mil (28%

larger)

An 8 mil trace would  be 8.3 mil. Closer but still over size.

Those inkjet printing direct to copper laminate accept  1200 dpi  is

required to get the detail faithfully.

The width that a laser printer lays down is impacted by a number of factors;

heat, pressure, amount of toner.

You may have a darkness setting in your driver that if reduced may give the

desired result as less toner is squashed out when it is set with heat and

pressure.

Proteus appears to do something different. Maybe it knows the printer

resolution and thus has the ability to downsize an object so it does not

grow larger than the design size when printed. It would then always be under

size.

I did a test print using an inkjet, replicating your "10mil lines between

SO8 package's pins 1 and 2 tends to bridge to the pin 1"

I get a  trace safely between the pins. But the clearances are less due to

the wet ink spreading out on the surface. (High resolution on Photo glossy

paper)

With an MLF64 the ink spreading nearly closed the spaces between the pads.

More so down the page than across. Again the printer affecting the outcome.

To get a definitive answer as to where the size variation is being

introduced and if whether Eagle does have an issue, a  test print and

accurte measurement would be required.

Hope this helps

Warren

--

Viewed / responded via the newsgroup at

news.cadsoft.de

Deniz Can Cigsar wrote:

I tried Eagle 5.11 on Windows XP, 6.1 on Mac Lion, and Windows XP..

Closed all layers but top layer.. The results are the same on Xerox

3140 printer.. Eagle prints everything a little thicker. The pads of

MLF package bridges, and the 10mil lines between SO8 package's pins 1

and 2 tends to bridge to the pin 1.. The calibration is OK, I printed

100mm x 100mm rectangle and its good enough..

 

I printed to pdf, and printed the pdf with Preview application on

macosx, this time the results are much better.. I would say "Oh, I

can do that way" but after comparing it with the same packaging, same

size that Proteus Ares produces, I saw that Proteus produces cleaner

results.. It looks like Eagle widens everything..

 

Should I configure anything other than "calibrate" and "black"

options on printer dialog?

 

Regards,

Deniz

Some thoughts.

Try a print to a printer with a higher resolution.

The Xerox 3140 printer has a native resolution of 600 x 600

The makes each dot 1.66 mil so and 5 mil trace could come out 6.4 mil (28%

larger)

An 8 mil trace would  be 8.3 mil. Closer but still over size.

Those inkjet printing direct to copper laminate accept  1200 dpi  is

required to get the detail faithfully.

The width that a laser printer lays down is impacted by a number of factors;

heat, pressure, amount of toner.

You may have a darkness setting in your driver that if reduced may give the

desired result as less toner is squashed out when it is set with heat and

pressure.

Proteus appears to do something different. Maybe it knows the printer

resolution and thus has the ability to downsize an object so it does not

grow larger than the design size when printed. It would then always be under

size.

I did a test print using an inkjet, replicating your "10mil lines between

SO8 package's pins 1 and 2 tends to bridge to the pin 1"

I get a  trace safely between the pins. But the clearances are less due to

the wet ink spreading out on the surface. (High resolution on Photo glossy

paper)

With an MLF64 the ink spreading nearly closed the spaces between the pads.

More so down the page than across. Again the printer affecting the outcome.

To get a definitive answer as to where the size variation is being

introduced and if whether Eagle does have an issue, a  test print and

accurte measurement would be required.

Hope this helps

Warren

--

Viewed / responded via the newsgroup at

news.cadsoft.de