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Eagle (Mac) print quality

Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-04 by Piers Goodhew

Hi List,

I've just posted a couple of photos ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Homebrew_PCBs/photos/album/1611066276/pic/list 
  ) showing something I've noticed Eagle do on both the venerable 5MP  
at home and the (wax-based) Xerox at my current work (both  
postscript). Now that I'm a solder paste/SMD zealot, it is more of an  
issue than before.

(Oh, and there may also be a superfluous third image which I uploaded  
when I ran out of patience and decided maybe the whole thing wasn't  
working. If it's there, ignore it)

There's this whole sort-of diagonal smear thing happening, most  
obviously around any through-holes - if you look at the "ex eagle" pic  
(you will have to go to "large" or "original" size to see it, or click  
this http://3.ly/UfB if you're lazy) you can see a white crescent at  
the bottom left of every hole, and several of the pads have pretty  
much bridged to nearby traces/pours (especially between the 0603 LEDs).

Are others seeing this? (either on Mac/postscript or any other  
combination)?

If I print to PDF, open the PDF in Illustrator, convert the strokes  
(it's all lines seemingly "gerber style") to outlines and print, I get  
the result shown in the "ex illustrator" image - much nicer! What I  
didn't think of, but will try tonight, is just printing a PDF ex-Eagle  
via some other app - it may be that eagle just can't print well under  
Mac OS - but how in the hell you can get a digital printer to smear  
like that is something I'd like to know!

PG

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-04 by Daniel Johnson

Interesting problem.

Try loading the eagle PDF into inkscape and have a look at it.

I make solder paste stencils by printing the tcream layer in eagle.  Next I load it into inkscape and then switch to the outline view. The files is saved as a SVG and then cut on a critcut machine.

A PCB like the one in your example can be easily cut.  I am still working on finer pitch parts like TQFP.

 3v0

--- On Fri, 9/4/09, Piers Goodhew <piers@u-h-p.com> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: Piers Goodhew <piers@...>
Subject: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Date: Friday, September 4, 2009, 3:41 AM






 




    
                  Hi List,



I've just posted a couple of photos ( http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/Homebrew_ PCBs/photos/ album/1611066276 /pic/list 

  ) showing something I've noticed Eagle do on both the venerable 5MP  

at home and the (wax-based) Xerox at my current work (both  

postscript). Now that I'm a solder paste/SMD zealot, it is more of an  

issue than before.



(Oh, and there may also be a superfluous third image which I uploaded  

when I ran out of patience and decided maybe the whole thing wasn't  

working. If it's there, ignore it)



There's this whole sort-of diagonal smear thing happening, most  

obviously around any through-holes - if you look at the "ex eagle" pic  

(you will have to go to "large" or "original" size to see it, or click  

this http://3.ly/ UfB if you're lazy) you can see a white crescent at  

the bottom left of every hole, and several of the pads have pretty  

much bridged to nearby traces/pours (especially between the 0603 LEDs).



Are others seeing this? (either on Mac/postscript or any other  

combination) ?



If I print to PDF, open the PDF in Illustrator, convert the strokes  

(it's all lines seemingly "gerber style") to outlines and print, I get  

the result shown in the "ex illustrator" image - much nicer! What I  

didn't think of, but will try tonight, is just printing a PDF ex-Eagle  

via some other app - it may be that eagle just can't print well under  

Mac OS - but how in the hell you can get a digital printer to smear  

like that is something I'd like to know!



PG


 

      

    
    
	
	 
	
	








	


	
	


      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-06 by Piers Goodhew

On 05/09/2009, at 7:06 AM, Daniel Johnson wrote:

> Interesting problem.
>
> Try loading the eagle PDF into inkscape and have a look at it.

Well, if it looks fine in Illustrator (and Preview) I'm pretty  
confident the PDF does not have whatever it is that the direct to- 
printer. What I did notice only when I'd uploaded the images (made  
much more obvious by the scanner's auto-sharpen) is that every fill is  
offset a little to the lower left to the outlines ...

I did try eagle -> PDF -> some other app -> Print and ... the smear is  
gone, although something else has happened to drill holes - I'm lucky  
enough to have Illustrator, I think I'll be sticking to that route!

> I make solder paste stencils by printing the tcream layer in eagle.   
> Next I load it into inkscape and then switch to the outline view.  
> The files is saved as a SVG and then cut on a critcut machine.
>
> A PCB like the one in your example can be easily cut.  I am still  
> working on finer pitch parts like TQFP.

That would be nice, but it also etched just fine, my first flirtation  
with 10mil traces and running things under SMD parts. Infuriatingly, i  
managed to break a trace with the drill chuck ...

PG

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-06 by Daniel Johnson

Piers,

Why are you creating a pdf ?   You can print directly from eagle.

3v0

--- On Sun, 9/6/09, Piers Goodhew <piers@...> wrote:
Show quoted textHide quoted text
From: Piers Goodhew <piers@...>
Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality
To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 11:36 AM






 




    
                  

On 05/09/2009, at 7:06 AM, Daniel Johnson wrote:



> Interesting problem.

>

> Try loading the eagle PDF into inkscape and have a look at it.



Well, if it looks fine in Illustrator (and Preview) I'm pretty  

confident the PDF does not have whatever it is that the direct to- 

printer. What I did notice only when I'd uploaded the images (made  

much more obvious by the scanner's auto-sharpen) is that every fill is  

offset a little to the lower left to the outlines ...



I did try eagle -> PDF -> some other app -> Print and ... the smear is  

gone, although something else has happened to drill holes - I'm lucky  

enough to have Illustrator, I think I'll be sticking to that route!



> I make solder paste stencils by printing the tcream layer in eagle.   

> Next I load it into inkscape and then switch to the outline view.  

> The files is saved as a SVG and then cut on a critcut machine.

>

> A PCB like the one in your example can be easily cut.  I am still  

> working on finer pitch parts like TQFP.



That would be nice, but it also etched just fine, my first flirtation  

with 10mil traces and running things under SMD parts. Infuriatingly, i  

managed to break a trace with the drill chuck ...



PG




 

      

    
    
	
	 
	
	








	


	
	


      

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-06 by Piers Goodhew

Uh, yeah, but the entire point of my post is that the direct printing  
is strangely smeared - that's what the pictures are of. Interested to  
see if it's just a mac thing, or a me thing.

PG
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On 06/09/2009, at 10:04 PM, Daniel Johnson wrote:

> Piers,
>
> Why are you creating a pdf ?   You can print directly from eagle.
>
> 3v0
>
> --- On Sun, 9/6/09, Piers Goodhew <piers@...> wrote:
>
> From: Piers Goodhew <piers@...>
> Subject: Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality
> To: Homebrew_PCBs@yahoogroups.com
> Date: Sunday, September 6, 2009, 11:36 AM
>
>
>
> On 05/09/2009, at 7:06 AM, Daniel Johnson wrote:
>
> > Interesting problem.
>
> >
>
> > Try loading the eagle PDF into inkscape and have a look at it.
>
> Well, if it looks fine in Illustrator (and Preview) I'm pretty
>
> confident the PDF does not have whatever it is that the direct to-
>
> printer. What I did notice only when I'd uploaded the images (made
>
> much more obvious by the scanner's auto-sharpen) is that every fill is
>
> offset a little to the lower left to the outlines ...
>
> I did try eagle -> PDF -> some other app -> Print and ... the smear is
>
> gone, although something else has happened to drill holes - I'm lucky
>
> enough to have Illustrator, I think I'll be sticking to that route!
>
> > I make solder paste stencils by printing the tcream layer in eagle.
>
> > Next I load it into inkscape and then switch to the outline view.
>
> > The files is saved as a SVG and then cut on a critcut machine.
>
> >
>
> > A PCB like the one in your example can be easily cut. I am still
>
> > working on finer pitch parts like TQFP.
>
> That would be nice, but it also etched just fine, my first flirtation
>
> with 10mil traces and running things under SMD parts. Infuriatingly, i
>
> managed to break a trace with the drill chuck ...
>
> PG
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-06 by Peter Harrison

On 6 Sep 2009, at 13:29, Piers Goodhew wrote:

> Uh, yeah, but the entire point of my post is that the direct printing
> is strangely smeared - that's what the pictures are of. Interested to
> see if it's just a mac thing, or a me thing.
>
> PG

I would say it is a mac thing at the moment. I have Eagle 5.6.0 and  
Mac OSX 10.5.8.

As far as I knew pretty well all printing on the mac is accomplished  
by generating postscript (a PDF) and then sending that to the printer.  
Thus a preview is a PDF file.

I took a simple board, suppressed all layers except the pads and  
printed out the board.

The 'smearing' you see looks like the fill and the outline are  
misaligned for the holes in the pads. No idea yet which is in the  
right place or what to do about it but I thought I would drop in a  
message to say you are not alone or seeing things.

Then, to double check, I printed straight to a PDF. Twice, once for  
each printer I have. In both cases the generated PDF is correct and  
shows no alignment issues.

I can't find anything about this on the Cadsoft newsgroups at the  
moment.

Now I come to look at it, the process of printing on OSX for Eagle is  
downright odd. Both printer setup and Print have horribly overlapping  
functionality.

Pete Harrison
www.micromouseonline.com

Re: [Homebrew_PCBs] Eagle (Mac) print quality

2009-09-06 by Piers Goodhew

Excellent! Independent verification!

I'm assuming the eagle code to print is some port of their existing  
code (with a lot more manual lifting), whereas the PDF is more Maccy?.  
(I also have problems if I try to do things like "print from the  
manual feed" - it apears to be 100% backwards)

The PDF route is not too onerous, I'm just glad I can do CAD without  
firing up a VM! Or paying money!

PG
Show quoted textHide quoted text
On 06/09/2009, at 11:18 PM, Peter Harrison wrote:
> I would say it is a mac thing at the moment. I have Eagle 5.6.0 and
> Mac OSX 10.5.8.

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