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part outline question

adrewery87

Hello,

 

Is it possible to create a part with a dynamic outline that is not on a specific layer? To clarify, I want to create a part that has an outline on the silk screen, but only if I want the silk screen on that layer. This part will be mounted on the top or bottom of various boards, but the silk screen will not be present on the bottom of the boards. If the part is on the bottom of the board, I do not want the outline to be present. In other words, if I mirror the part on my board, I want to have the silk screen outline switch from the "tplace" layer to the "bplace" layer. Alternatively, if the outline would go from solid to dashed that would work as well.

 

I know it is possible to create a part with a silk screen outline. However, it seems you have to choose to put it on only one layer. When the boards go to have the components placed at another company it is not necessarily clear to them. I can give them a list of the components which are placed on the bottom of the board, but it would be more desirable to correct for this by changing the outline style.

 

Thanks,

Adam

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  • 0

    Hi,

     

    if you are creating a part in the libraries you can draw a silkscreen in the layer 21 tPlace. The packages are always defined for the top side. In case you want to mount the package on the bottom side of the board you have to use the MIRROR command and it will be flipped to bottom. All you have drawn in layers 21 tPlace will now be in layer 22 bPlace. The same for tNames and tValues. To make this effect better visible you could for example change the layer color of the bottom (bPlace,bNmaes,bValues,bDocu) layers.

     

    HTH

    Regards,

    Richard

  • 0 in reply to Richard_H

    Hi Richard,

     

    Thanks for the reply. I had noticed the switching of layers when mirroring parts. The reason I had asked is the board house has additional charges for two silk screens. To this end, it would be nice to be able to have the silk screen stay on the same layer but go to a dotted line or have a cross hatched fill. When we ship the boards to have components placed it is beneficial for them so they know that a certain part actually is mounted on the back side of the board.

     

    That being said, there were two workarounds we came up with (we are using the second):

    1.    Use traces to make outlines of the part on the back of the board. Obviously, one must be cautious to not unintentionally create short circuits.
    2.    Create an identical part with a package that has an dotted outline on the bPlace layer. That way when the part is mirrored, as you had mentioned, the silk screen is now put on the tPlace layer. The problem with this is when using a large number of parts, it is very tedious but will work all the same.

     

    I am unsure if this is something CADSOFT was considering adding, but I feel it would be a very nice feature to have. Sure, it may only cost a few dollars to have the additional silk screen which is reasonable for prototyping. However, this adds up when moving to large quantities of boards.

     

    Again, thanks for the reply. I just wanted to ensure there was not an advanced feature I was unaware of.

     

    Regards,

    Adam

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  • 0 in reply to Richard_H

    Hi Richard,

     

    Thanks for the reply. I had noticed the switching of layers when mirroring parts. The reason I had asked is the board house has additional charges for two silk screens. To this end, it would be nice to be able to have the silk screen stay on the same layer but go to a dotted line or have a cross hatched fill. When we ship the boards to have components placed it is beneficial for them so they know that a certain part actually is mounted on the back side of the board.

     

    That being said, there were two workarounds we came up with (we are using the second):

    1.    Use traces to make outlines of the part on the back of the board. Obviously, one must be cautious to not unintentionally create short circuits.
    2.    Create an identical part with a package that has an dotted outline on the bPlace layer. That way when the part is mirrored, as you had mentioned, the silk screen is now put on the tPlace layer. The problem with this is when using a large number of parts, it is very tedious but will work all the same.

     

    I am unsure if this is something CADSOFT was considering adding, but I feel it would be a very nice feature to have. Sure, it may only cost a few dollars to have the additional silk screen which is reasonable for prototyping. However, this adds up when moving to large quantities of boards.

     

    Again, thanks for the reply. I just wanted to ensure there was not an advanced feature I was unaware of.

     

    Regards,

    Adam

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