Homebrew PCBs

i also tried pstoedit.
same results.

the reason for plotting to ps with correct holes is maybe that it is done only b/w.
so the software has no excuse like "oh, lets try another color" and the programmers had to get it right.

((( question: ps is vector or raster? )))

regards
stefan


12.05.2003 22:01:21, Larry Battraw <battraw@...> wrote:

>On Mon, 2003-05-12 at 10:27, Stefan Trethan wrote:
>> i have downloaded eagle.
>> i only tried it some minutes but it seems less powerful than orcad
>> which i use now.
>> 
>> the problem is it also doesn't keep the drill holes open for me.
>> 
>> you simply can edit the hpgl file to set the force, my plotter doesn't
>> support setting the force so i 
>> never tried this. hpgl commands are very easy (similar to cnc
>> commands). there is much documentation on 
>> the web.
>
>  Yes, that's what I do currently.
>
>
>> one method to get the drill holes open may be to find a converter tool
>> which converts some printer 
>> format (pcl, ps, maybe pdf) or a plain image to a hpgl (1) file. this
>> should be one which sets the outer 
>> lines to fill the dark areas exactly and fills in between. i have
>> searched such a tool quite a while, 
>> all results i got were very, very poor, if i got a output file at all.
>
>  I tried just that, using a package called "pstoedit", which will
>convert postscript (and other vector formats) to a wide range of output
>formats, including HPGL.  The problem is, postscript is a _lot_ smarter
>than hpgl.  For example, I wanted to be able to try the "scratch and
>etch" method for making a PCB, so I needed a negative of the output. 
>Eagle has an "inverted PS" option for output, which I used as an input
>to pstoedit for producing HPGL.  The problem is, the way it does this is
>to print a black rectangle and then draw the traces in white.  The HPGL
>output attempted to reproduce this by printing a filled rectangle and
>then drawing the traces in another color on top of it.  Didn't work too
>well obviously.  Similarly, the only way to handle pads with unfilled
>drill holes would be to draw X number of concentric circles (each a pen
>diameter smaller) until the resulting unfilled area was the correct
>size.  HPGL does have a filled circle command as far as I know, but you
>can't subtract out polygons/arcs from the fill.
>
>> 
>> if anyone knows a converter please write.
>> 
>> the advantage of a converter is that i do get printer files (b/w)
>> which have the holes open but i don't 
>> get plotter files.
>> 
>> thanks for the tip with eagle.
>> 
>
>  Incidentally, it is possible to print PS output with non-filled drill
>holes.  I just made a PCB that way the other day.  It's a matter of
>fooling around with which layers get plotted in the CAM processor, and I
>can't remember which layers need to be turned off.
>
>Larry
>
>
>
>
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