How to check drill sizes in mm (production board)

Florian Schmoll schrieb:

I have a design I've created and I would like

to send my first one off for production .

 

So I need to be able to check what the drill

sizes are prior to Gerber / Excellon file production.

 

Is there a simple way to force only three drill

sizes e.g. 0.3mm vias, 0.8mm pads, 1.0mm

for connector blocks - this is to cut down the

price of course.

 

How do I do this from the board file ??

 

Florian

 

 

Run statistic-brd.ulp to get the information about the drill

sizes used in the layout. As an alternative use drillegend.ulp.

It's not so simple to to change drill sizes of components. The

drill diameter is defined in the component's library. So have to

change them there.

If you do not want to change the original libraries you

could use exp-project-lbr.ulp to extract the library desinitions

from your layout. Then change-pad-in-lbr.ulp to modify the pads

in the libraries. Now you can use the UPDATE command to refresh

your board.

Vias and holes that are placed in the board directly can be

changed with GROUP and CHANGE DRILL.

--

Mit freundlichen Gruessen / Best regards

Richard Hammerl

CadSoft Support -- hotline@cadsoft.de

FAQ: http://www.cadsoft.de/faq.htm

I'll defer to experts in this area, but I have this idea...

To get prototypes made with a minimum number of drill sizes, I suspect the "T" codes can be changed. In the Excellon (.drd) file, there are X-Y coordinates grouped by drill sizes. For example:

T01

X43888Y23435

X48808Y22915

At the front of the Excellon file are the T01, T01... definitions. For example:

T01C0.0120

T02C0.0240

T03C0.0320

T04C0.0400

T05C0.0500

In the "Drill Station Info File" (.dri) is information about the T01, T02... in plain English (or German, I suspect). For Example:

Drills used:

Code  Size       used

T01   0.0120inch   145

T02   0.0240inch     8

T03   0.0320inch    26

T04   0.0400inch    50

T05   0.0500inch     1

So I suspect the Excellon file can be edited (in a plain text editor) to change the drill sizes. Hence in my example, the .032 may be changed to .040 and T03 becomes "T03C0.0400" in the Excellon file.

If you try this with a board house, let us know if it works.

--

Jeff Rockel

WI, USA

--

Browser access to CadSoft Support Forums at http://www.eaglecentral.ca

Jeff rockel schrieb:

I'll defer to experts in this area, but I have this idea...

To get prototypes made with a minimum number of drill sizes, I suspect

the "T" codes can be changed. In the Excellon (.drd) file, there are X-Y

coordinates grouped by drill sizes. For example:

 

T01

X43888Y23435

X48808Y22915

 

At the front of the Excellon file are the T01, T01... definitions. For

example:

 

T01C0.0120

T02C0.0240

T03C0.0320

T04C0.0400

T05C0.0500

 

In the "Drill Station Info File" (.dri) is information about the T01,

T02... in plain English (or German, I suspect). For Example:

 

Drills used:

 

Code  Size       used

 

T01   0.0120inch   145

T02   0.0240inch     8

T03   0.0320inch    26

T04   0.0400inch    50

T05   0.0500inch     1

 

So I suspect the Excellon file can be edited (in a plain text editor) to

change the drill sizes. Hence in my example, the .032 may be changed to

.040 and T03 becomes "T03C0.0400" in the Excellon file.

If you try this with a board house, let us know if it works.

 

This will work, but don't forget that the width of the copper

ring around the drill hole will change!

--

Mit freundlichen Gruessen / Best regards

Richard Hammerl

CadSoft Support -- hotline@cadsoft.de

FAQ: http://www.cadsoft.de/faq.htm

On Thu, 23 Jul 2009 16:35:02 +0200, Richard Hammerl <ric@cadsoft.de>

wrote:

So I suspect the Excellon file can be edited (in a plain text editor) to

change the drill sizes. Hence in my example, the .032 may be changed to

.040 and T03 becomes "T03C0.0400" in the Excellon file.

If you try this with a board house, let us know if it works.

 

 

This will work, but don't forget that the width of the copper

ring around the drill hole will change!

So, it is probably safe to make any holes smaller, because that will

only produce more of the copper ring.  But making the hole larger

might make the copper ring dangerously small, or maybe even

non-existent.

Robert Scott

Real-Time Specialties

Ypsilanti, Michigan