Homebrew PCBs

Hi Dave,
        I ment the guys who make Eagle or Target. Make a drawing
program that saves the pad outlines as Gcode or PLT. Running a post
processor is after the fact. You have to put up with all kinds of
garbage. I do beleive a program is comming! Lots of people talking
about milling circuit boards at the hobby level. I would even
go for a Gcode save in Turbocad at this point. I left out two
holes on my last circuit board. Now I have two or more hours
of work to fix it. Adding the holes is easy. Then I have to rotate
the drawing. Convert it to Gcode. Take out some junk. Add some
other stuff. Then center the Gcode, then offset it for the machine
I mill it on. All because I left two hole out. Now if I could draw
in GCode. We are talking minutes.  

                                        John 



--- In Homebrew_PCBs@y..., "ph4appl" <ph4appl@y...> wrote:
> Not easy by any stretch of the imagination. If anyone doesn't 
believe 
> me, take a look at 
> 
> http://www.cg.tuwien.ac.at/studentwork/CESCG99/SKrivograd/
> 
> This page describes some of the math involved with generating an 
> outline or tool path.
> 
> On a side note, I got ToolPathPro to compile this afternoon. I ran 
a 
> sample DXF file through it and generated some rather interesting 
> GCodes. I'll have some pics on my website shortly. The good news is 
> that Alan has inspired me to keep on working on this thing. It can 
> currently handle direct DXF export from TraxMakerPro and convert to 
> GCode. I still need to work on the optimization algorithm, and 
forsee 
> several weeks of coding, but it is in the works.
> 
> Dave
> 
> --- In Homebrew_PCBs@y..., Alan Marconett KM6VV <KM6VV@a...> wrote:
> > Hi John,
> > 
> > Well, I wouldn't say it's a "very simple program to write", right 
> Dave? 
> > I've seen the three Gerber files from TCi.  Silk, component, and
> > solder.  Both component (green) and solder (red) have traces and 
> pads. 
> > The silk (yellow) is component outline. 
> > I only saw a few random blue and red lines when I loaded a TCi 
> gerber
> > file into KCam.  I suspect I have an old version.  As long as I 
can
> > convert the files, I'll just run them through my own "process".
> >  
> > Hay!  If the cost is high, maybe I can sell an inexpensive 
converter
> > program!
> > 
> > Alan  KM6VV
> > 
> > 
> > crankorgan wrote:
> > > 
> > > Hi Alan,
> > >         TCI makes three Gerber files. One of them has the
> > > pads and traces. When I plot the Gerber I get lots of
> > > BLUE lines. Red is cut and blue is travel. When I see
> > > more BLUE than Red I quit. I like my machine to spend
> > > it's time cutting not traveling all over. Most program
> > > that do outlines of traces are bogus. There are several
> > > new ones coming out. Big money! A very simple program to write. 
I
> > > think the cost is high because there are so few PCBMills in
> > > use. They are very expensive to buy. I got laughed at last
> > > year when I came out with my plans. Now there are several
> > > people with homemade PCBMills. Here is your chance to get
> > > in on the fun!
> > > 
> > >                                                  John
> > >