Homebrew PCBs

hello. 
I have to recive a gerber file soon,and for that purpose, I have 
downloaded "View mate 10" and "gerber magic" .
( I have to make a simple PCB, and the costumer will drill it 
himself ,and he will need the drill holes)

Now , to test it, I made some files from an Eagle project, but after 
choosing to make Gerber 274 X , in Egle ,my files get extensions 
like .BOT  or .cmp .

Now, I can view them in the gerber viewers , but there is a problem. 
I dont get the drill holes .

I can understand, that drill holes will not be needed in the file,as 
the PCB would be drilled with a CNC mashine after etching. 

But is it not possible to get the drill holes in the layout drawing, 
for etching ?
 and second, ARE the files I get from Eagle , Gerber ? They have 
different extensions than gerber. ?
Alex

The weird extensions are normal in eagle, it is real gerber. Eagle
just had to be different in that point as well.

Sorry i do not know of any way to include the holes in a gerber file.
Possibly you could merge the excellon drill file and the gerber file
with some tool.

ST

On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 12:18 PM, b52chris <christiansen_alex@...> wrote:
> hello.
> I have to recive a gerber file soon,and for that purpose, I have
> downloaded "View mate 10" and "gerber magic" .
> ( I have to make a simple PCB, and the costumer will drill it
> himself ,and he will need the drill holes)
>
> Now , to test it, I made some files from an Eagle project, but after
> choosing to make Gerber 274 X , in Egle ,my files get extensions
> like .BOT  or .cmp .
>
> Now, I can view them in the gerber viewers , but there is a problem.
> I dont get the drill holes .
>
> I can understand, that drill holes will not be needed in the file,as
> the PCB would be drilled with a CNC mashine after etching.
>
> But is it not possible to get the drill holes in the layout drawing,
> for etching ?
>  and second, ARE the files I get from Eagle , Gerber ? They have
> different extensions than gerber. ?
> Alex
>
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "b52chris"
<christiansen_alex@...> wrote:

> But is it not possible to get the drill holes in the layout drawing, 
> for etching ?
>  and second, ARE the files I get from Eagle , Gerber ? They have 
> different extensions than gerber. ?
> Alex
>

Hi. 

In EasyPC you can select to generate gerber of pads without filling in
the holes. This might be what you are looking for? You can download a
demo of EasyPC if you want to try it. www.numberone.com 

I do not know if Eagle has a similar feature though but it if
anything, least this proves there is a way. 

Trev

----- Original Message ----- 

From: "b52chris" <christiansen_alex@...>
To: <Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 11:18 AM
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] drill holes in gerber file -how can it be done


> hello.
> I have to recive a gerber file soon,and for that purpose, I have
> downloaded "View mate 10" and "gerber magic" .
> ( I have to make a simple PCB, and the costumer will drill it
> himself ,and he will need the drill holes)
>
> Now , to test it, I made some files from an Eagle project, but after
> choosing to make Gerber 274 X , in Egle ,my files get extensions
> like .BOT  or .cmp .
>
> Now, I can view them in the gerber viewers , but there is a problem.
> I dont get the drill holes .
>
> I can understand, that drill holes will not be needed in the file,as
> the PCB would be drilled with a CNC mashine after etching.
>
> But is it not possible to get the drill holes in the layout drawing,
> for etching ?
> and second, ARE the files I get from Eagle , Gerber ? They have
> different extensions than gerber. ?

Drill files generally have to be imported separately into a Gerber viewer. 
That's the case with GCPrevue, anyway.

Leon

Note that for home etching, you probably do NOT want the holes etched.
Or at least, you want much smaller holes etched.  If you etch a hole
the size of the drill, and the drill is off, you end up with the
copper not touching the edge of the hole.

In PCB there's a "drill helper" option that tells it to etch a small
hole (about 10 mil) at the center point to help you center the drill
bit, but not big enough to cause problems with off-center holes.

In Target there is also a function like this to only print small
starter holes. Very useful for me.

It can probably be faked by setting the hole dia. really small, but if
you order PCBs from those files later you better not forget to correct
any!

ST

On Fri, Aug 8, 2008 at 4:06 PM, DJ Delorie <dj@...> wrote:
>
> Note that for home etching, you probably do NOT want the holes etched.
> Or at least, you want much smaller holes etched.  If you etch a hole
> the size of the drill, and the drill is off, you end up with the
> copper not touching the edge of the hole.
>
> In PCB there's a "drill helper" option that tells it to etch a small
> hole (about 10 mil) at the center point to help you center the drill
> bit, but not big enough to cause problems with off-center holes.
>
> ------------------------------------
>
> Be sure to visit the group home and check for new Links, Files, and Photos:
> http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBsYahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>

--- In Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com, "b52chris" 
<christiansen_alex@...> wrote:
>
> hello. 
> I have to recive a gerber file soon,and for that purpose, I have 
> downloaded "View mate 10" and "gerber magic" .
> ( I have to make a simple PCB, and the costumer will drill it 
> himself ,and he will need the drill holes)
> 
> Now , to test it, I made some files from an Eagle project, but 
after 
> choosing to make Gerber 274 X , in Egle ,my files get extensions 
> like .BOT  or .cmp .
> 
> Now, I can view them in the gerber viewers , but there is a 
problem. 
> I dont get the drill holes .
> 
> I can understand, that drill holes will not be needed in the 
file,as 
> the PCB would be drilled with a CNC mashine after etching. 
> 
> But is it not possible to get the drill holes in the layout 
drawing, 
> for etching ?
>  and second, ARE the files I get from Eagle , Gerber ? They have 
> different extensions than gerber. ?
> Alex
>
Greetings, the extensions .bot(bottom) and .cmp(component) are eagle 
extensions, you also need to generate the drill files for the board, 
which is in the eagle control panel under CAM jobs, excellon.cam, 
this will generate a drill file that contains the drill sizes, and 
x,y coordinates. I'm not sure if a cnc machine can read the drl file 
because I don't have one :(  You may need to convert it to another 
format like gcode I think.

"Stefan Trethan" <stefan_trethan@...> writes:
> It can probably be faked by setting the hole dia. really small, but if
> you order PCBs from those files later you better not forget to correct
> any!

I've gotten into the habit of post-processing my boards (to different
file names, of course) for adjustments like drill size, paste area,
teardrops, etc.

Thank you so much to all of you ,that have taken your time ,trying to 
help me with my problem..
I will think about what you have said, and hope it will lead to 
somthing better than ,at the moment. 
Anyway, its good to know ,that it is not just me that can't make holes .
Alex