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Improving board

diego_element14

Richard,

 

I've made my first circuit board using eagle, press-n-peel, and etching solution. I've run into a few problems "room for improvement".

 

I am trying to get my holes drilled using a CNC machine. The machinist asked me if there was any way to increase the pad size for each resistor and capacitor. I would say most of the pads are slightly thicker in width than the traces, which are 0.016. Can I do this from the board view or do I need to find a library with parts that have bigger pads?

 

Also, I can not figure out how to print layers correctly. It may be a bug. I am trying to print everything that's going to be copper (traces and pads). I've also enabled the tValues layer and disabled the tOrigins layer. When I print the board, it prints both. I disabled the tOrigins layer again, print, and they are gone. I've done this twice to make sure I'm not crazy.

 

Is there a guide for using either Excellon or Gerber option in the CAM process? I felt like a fool going to the machine shop. Electrical engineers always look like fools around heavy machines.

 

Thanks for the help.

  • Hi Diego,

     

    look into the Design Rules, Restring tab. There you have settings for the pads. Increase the minimum value of maybe the percentage that calculates the actual pad diameter. These settings are valid for all pads in the layout.  Run the DRC afterwards in order to check for clearance again.

    In case you want to change diameters for certain components only, you have to do this in the library. Increase the pad diameter there and use Libraries/Update... in order to transfer the changed package definition into your drawing. By the way: In EAGLE V6 you could modify the pad diameter in the brd file directly. It's XML now which is editable with text editor.

     

    Concerning the printing:  I can't reproduce the problem you described. Could you give me some more details, please?

     

    The manual (available as PDF in the eagle/doc folder) comes with a chapter about generating manufacturing data. There you will find more information about how to use the CAM Processor. In case you are more interested in how a board will be manufactured, I recommend to look at the web site of EuroCircuits. They have very good and understandable videos about how is a board manufactured.

    ==>  http://www.eurocircuits.com/index.php/making-a-pcb-eductional-movies

     

    Regards,
    Richard

  • in reply to Richard_H

    Thanks Richard.

     

    The Design rules is exactly what I was looking for.

     

    As for the printing, I think what I was doing wrong was not actually clicking on the "OK" button after telling it to print to PDF. Seems to be working now.