[sdiy] PCBs from image?

[patchell]

http://www.channelislandcircuits.com/

    This is one posibility.  Last time I talked to them, they would still work this
way.  But, be aware of the fact that if you do not have an NC Drill File for the
board, there will be a stiff NRE charge to generate one.  You will also need to
provide a very clear drill chart of where which size drill drills what hole.  This
is the reason most places will not do boards any longer unless you can supply CAM
files (Gerber, Axelon Drill Files), because they just don't want to bother.
Entering the drill data by hand is unfortunately fraught with error.

    My recomendation would be to get a "FREE" cad program, and just relayout the PC
board with that program.  It will the generate the CAM files for you, and
potentially save you a bit of money.

    By the way, the above shop did my SMB board:
http://www.silcom.com/~patchell/smb1/smb.html

    I would give them a B- grade and the three boards I got cost me $600, and only
one was usable.

    So far, all of the boards that Advanced Circuits has done for me I would give
an A+, but, they will not work from film, and the Advanced Circuits boards cost me
1/10 as much for the same quantities (and they are all useable).

prototek wrote:

>     I would really like to know if this is possible too so please post to
> SDIY if anyone knows if this is possible.
>
>                     Thanks,
>                     John
>
> on 11/30/02 7:40 PM, Fernando de Izuzquiza at fdi at ran.es wrote:
>
> >
> > Hi all,
> > I would like to find someone in Europe (or even USA) that can make PCBs (one
> > side, drilled, no
> > legend) from image files (or transparent print of the image, of course).
> > 15 years ago it was possible here in Barcelona, but now they ask me for the
> > GERBER file (I imagine
> > this is a vectorial description file or so). Even if any of the free software
> > available on the net
> > can save as GERBER file, some of my PCB drawings are too complicate to be
> > copied trace by trace.
> >
> > So can you point me to someone that still works the old way? Any other tip or
> > advise?
> >
> > Many thanks in advance!
> > Fernando
> >
> >
> > f
> > *
> >
> >

--
 -Jim
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