Homebrew PCBs

Hi,

Maybe this will be useful to someone. I spent some time trying to arrange 4 print outs side by side on an A4 paper for photo printing 2-sided boards (2 prints on each side). I wanted to avoid rasterizing the PDFs.

1. Print out the two layers on A6 portrait format on CutePDF printer - file design1.pdf. Kicad I'm using puts them on separate pages.
2. Print out the two layers in mirror on A6 portrait format - file design2.pdf.
3. install ghostscript (http://www.ghostscript.com/download/gsdnld.html) and psutils (http://gnuwin32.sourceforge.net/packages/psutils.htm)
4. cd <whereyouputthefiles>
5. Run the following in sequence (use gswin32 or gswin64 depending on which you installed):
gswin64 -sDEVICE=pswrite -sPAPERSIZE=a6 -o step1.ps design1.pdf design2.pdf
psnup -4 -pa6 -s0.5 step1.ps step2.ps
gswin64 -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sPAPERSIZE=a6 -o step3.pdf step2.ps
gswin64 -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -sPAPERSIZE=a4 -dPDFFitPage -o final.pdf step3.pdf

Probably there are other methods out there but I've been unable to find a program that takes 4 pdfs and panelizes them on one page.

On 04/01/2012 19:42, clausundercover wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Maybe this will be useful to someone. I spent some time trying to
> arrange 4 print outs side by side on an A4 paper for photo printing
> 2-sided boards (2 prints on each side). I wanted to avoid rasterizing
> the PDFs.

The Pulsonix PCB software I use does that for me.

Leon
-- 
Leon Heller
G1HSM

I did a 2-up in InkScape and of course Illustrator can also do it - it's manual in both cases, but with guides you can get the alignment 100% right.

PG

On 05/01/2012, at 7:19 AM, Leon Heller wrote:

> On 04/01/2012 19:42, clausundercover wrote:
> > Hi,
> >
> > Maybe this will be useful to someone. I spent some time trying to
> > arrange 4 print outs side by side on an A4 paper for photo printing
> > 2-sided boards (2 prints on each side). I wanted to avoid rasterizing
> > the PDFs.
> 
> The Pulsonix PCB software I use does that for me.
> 
> Leon
> -- 
> Leon Heller
> G1HSM
>

I have a script that merges multiple gEDA/PCB layouts into one board,
then print that.  I have another script that "flips" a board, so I can
add that as a separate board and print both sides of the board(s) at
once.