holes not in Excellon drill file

Question

Hi all, I attempted to send a manufacturer a drill file in Excellon format, but they informed me that several 0.6" holes I wanted drilled were not in the Excellon drill file. I browsed through the file and it appears that they are not present. I checked one of the holes and it is in the "holes" layer as a circle. In one of the forums it is suggested that a circle in the holes layer is not correct. http://www.element14.com/community/message/57758/l/conversion-to-excellon-problem#57758 Is there some magic to tell Eagle to place these holes in the Excellon drill file? Thanks, Jeremy 
 Attachments: HeaterLEDBoard.drd.zip

autodeskguest · Accepted Answer

On 25/09/14 19:02, Jeremy Dwyer wrote:

I checked one of the holes and it is in the "holes" layer as a circle.
In one of the forums it is suggested that a circle in the holes layer is
not correct.
http://www.element14.com/community/message/57758/l/conversion-to-excellon-problem#57758
(/message/57758/l/conversion-to-excellon-problem#57758)

Is there some magic to tell Eagle to place these holes in the Excellon
drill file?

The holes layer should not contain circles. It should contain holes.

Only holes in the holes and drills layers will be included in the

Excellon file. Note that pads and vias automatically create holes in the

drills layer, whereas mounting holes for connectors are explicitly drawn

as holes in the holes layer by the library package.

If you have board mounting holes then you should draw them as a hole in

the holes layer. It's common to also draw a circle in the dimension

layer, and quite possibly a larger circle in the restrict and/or keepout

layers. To this end it may be worth creating a mounting hole library

part - or use one of the ones in the holes library.

HTH

Rob