Gerber output format

Simon,

Just curious.... can you just export in extended Gerber format so that the

apertures are embedded, or do you need the separate aperture list for the

plotter?

Terri

"Simon" <simon.gornall@mac.com> wrote in message

news:gimubd$hl0$1@cheetah.cadsoft.de...

Hi there,

 

I've just acquired a rather nice EverPrecision 2002H PCB plotter, and

I'm trying to get Eagle to output the correct form of Gerber files that

the plotter understands.

 

I think it's the aperture file that's causing problems....

 

- If I use the supplied example gerber top file, and the supplied

example aperture file, the machine plots out the example circuit just

fine and dandy (well, duh!

 

- If I use the eagle-generated aperture file (*.whl) and the

eagle-generated gerber top-layer file, I get a black screen in the

control-software. No lines anywhere

 

- If I use the eagle-generated gerber top-layer file and the supplied

example aperture file, I at least see something. It's a bit weird, but

there are lines on the screen.

 

I conclude that (at least) the aperture file is not being read

correctly. Inspecting the two files (the example one, and the

eagle-generated one) shows quite a different file format... Here's the

example one:

 

simon% cat Demo.apt

D11   ROUNDED            12.000      12.000       0.000 MULTI

D12   ROUNDED            50.000      50.000       0.000 MULTI

D13   ROUNDED            60.000      60.000       0.000 MULTI

D14   ROUNDED            48.000      48.000       0.000 MULTI

D15   RECTANGULAR        24.000     100.000       0.000 MULTI

D16   RELIEF             20.000      20.000       0.000 FLASH

D17   ROUNDED            20.000      20.000       0.000 MULTI

D18   RECTANGULAR        34.000     110.000       0.000 MULTI

D19   RECTANGULAR       100.000      24.000       0.000 MULTI

D20   RECTANGULAR       110.000      34.000       0.000 MULTI

D21   OVAL              24.000     100.000       0.000 MULTI

D22   OVAL              34.000     110.000       0.000 MULTI

D23   ROUNDED             6.000       6.000       0.000 MULTI

D24   ROUNDED            10.000      10.000       0.000 MULTI

D25   RELIEF             52.000      52.000       0.000 FLASH

D26   ROUNDED            52.000      52.000       0.000 MULTI

D27   RECTANGULAR        50.000      50.000       0.000 MULTI

D28   RECTANGULAR        60.000      60.000       0.000 MULTI

D29   ROUNDED             5.000       5.000       0.000 MULTI

 

... and here's what Eagle outputs for my test-the-plotter  circuit:

 

simon% cat digi.whl

 

 

;aperture wheel file generated by EAGLE

;remove the above line to prevent this file from being overwritten!

 

D10      draw      0.0000inch

D11      draw      0.0030inch

D12      round     0.0560inch

D13      round     0.0620inch

D14      draw      0.0050inch

D15      draw      0.0020inch

D16      square    0.0560inch

D17      square    0.0620inch

D18      octagon   0.0560inch

D19      octagon   0.0620inch

D20      draw      0.0060inch

D21      draw      0.0040inch

D22      draw      0.0480inch

D23      draw      0.0540inch

D24      draw      0.0560inch

D25      draw      0.0620inch

D26      round     0.1360inch

D27      rectangle 0.0350inch x 0.0500inch

D28      draw      0.0632inch

D29      draw      0.0692inch

D30      draw      0.0100inch

D31      rectangle 0.7300inch x 0.0300inch

D32      rectangle 1.2200inch x 0.0200inch

D33      round     0.2000inch

D34      round     0.2060inch

D35      rectangle 0.0320inch x 0.2850inch

D36      rectangle 0.0320inch x 0.1850inch

D37      octagon   0.0480inch

D38      octagon   0.0540inch

D39      rectangle 0.0240inch x 0.0340inch

D40      rectangle 0.0200inch x 0.0150inch

D41      rectangle 0.0150inch x 0.0200inch

D42      draw      0.0700inch

D43      draw      0.0760inch

D44      square    0.0593inch

D45      square    0.0653inch

D46      round     0.0593inch

D47      round     0.0653inch

D48      round     0.0240inch

D49      round     0.0300inch

 

 

 

... the file-formats are quite clearly different, and presumably the

machine's software isn't sufficiently flexible to parse the output

correctly. I think the machine is expecting 'protel' aperture-file

syntax.

 

So:

- Is there any way of altering the format of the wheel file generated

by eagle ?

- Is there any place I can read up on how I might run a perl script to

convert between the two formats ?

- Is there an easier way ? Or am I just missing something ? This is the

first time I've played with Gerber output...

 

Thanks for any help

 

Simon

On 2008-12-26 07:39:14 -0800, "Terri Miller" <tmiller@sunstone.com> said:

 

Simon,

 

Just curious.... can you just export in extended Gerber format so that

the apertures are embedded, or do you need the separate aperture list

for the plotter?

 

Terri

I should have updated the post - once I realised I could use RS274X

instead, everything went swimmingly I even set up a web-page to show

off the results, I was so pleased (see http://www.0x0000ff.com/2002H/

for examples of 0.5mm traces/pads).

So, everything is great

Cheers,

     Simon.