[sdiy] PCB faceplate large hole creation?

[Steve Lenham]

Just wanted to backup what others have said - put anything large like 
that on the "board outline" layer and the fab will rout it out along 
with everything else. It is an absolutely normal part of the process and 
all sorts of features - gaps between panelised boards, slots for 
mounting tabs, etc - are created in the same way.

Your PCB fab will specify the size of router they use (often 2mm) and 
this defines the narrowest gap and tightest radius that you can achieve.

When you realise that:

a) PCBs can be ANY shape you like, with all sorts of cutouts in them and
b) you can panelise all sorts of pieces onto your main board and the 
incremental cost of each one is negligible,

...it is very empowering. You can get creative with it:

https://hackaday.io/project/162654-pcb-3d-startrek-enterprise

...but on a more mundane level, there are lots of times where a chunk of 
PCB can be used as a custom mounting plate, or a small panel, or to make 
a particular component quicker/easier to connect to - and so on.

Cheers,

Steve L.
Benden Sound Technology


On 27/05/2021 16:38, Oren Leavitt via Synth-diy wrote:
> I use KiCad. I just put any large cut outs, circular or otherwise, on 
> the edge cuts layer. I've had no issues with any of the board houses I used.
> 
> On 5/27/21 10:26 AM, Pete Hartman via Synth-diy wrote:
>> I've had fabs make large holes, using a circle on the edge cuts 
>> layer.  Didn't have any problems with it....  Then it's up to them to 
>> figure out how to cut it.
>>
>> Pete
>>
>> On Thu, May 27, 2021 at 10:23 AM <doug at synthark.com 
>> <mailto:doug at synthark.com>> wrote:
>>
>>     I'm building a jack faceplate, which requires large holes (MIDI,
>>     USB).
>>     While I can create the holes in my PCB tool (DipTrace), it flags
>>     most of
>>     the holes as DRC violations (too large to drill, > 0.2"), which makes
>>     sense, since PCB fabs probably aren't setup to drill large holes. 
>>     I'm
>>     guessing my best solution would be to CNC the PCB after it's fab'd
>>     (since the USB hole is not circular).  Can anyone confirm or
>>     provide a
>>     better solution?
>>
>>     Thanks,
>>     -- 
>>     Doug Huseby