Thu 4 Jan 2007
After some help files and some guesswork, I think I have come up with a workable solution to engraving PCBs with EngraveLab. The previous problem was that it did not import the pads properly from a GerbTool generated HPGL file, and it didn’t do the tracks correctly when importing from a GerbTool generated DXF file. The small workaround is to import both files and then lay one on-top of the other, select both, click a single layer so they are both become the same color, and then do a “basic weld” to join the shapes into one. To be specific, export HPGL with outline selected and with a pen that is very small (0.0001″ works fine). Next, import this HPGL file into Engravelab and when it is selected, perform a basic weld to join all of the parts of the tracks together. Finally, import the DXF file and weld that to the tracks. Now a male toolpath can be created which will go around all of the traces and pads. I am still working out good speed and depth settings for 1oz copper plate and how to do the drilling, however, there is a drill toolpath editor in EngraveLab so that looks promising. As usual, more on this later. (previous post)
Another option that I have been looking at is editing the layer in GerbTool by using tools->convert->draw to pad or something like that. This way, you select all of the tracks and convert them to pads, and then when you export the HPGL with the pads-only option selected, the right looking artwork comes out. The trouble is that the toolpath is on the inside of the design instead of outside. Setting the pen size to 1mil or less makes it looked filled in, but then you still have to generate the appropriate toolpath for the contour.
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January 4th, 2007 at 3:11 pm
[...] Some time ago we good an EGX-300 engraver from Roland in the hope of doing small 3D and PCB prototyping. As far as the 3D goes, the Modella tool that comes from Roland is not too useful for any kind of complex 3D design and most people seem to use VisualMill to generate the tool paths from standard 3D files. An example guide is over at instructables. The EngraveLab software that lots of EGX-300 vendors try to push with this device has so far proven to be fairly useless for 3D work and can be considered to be a waste of 1000USD for this application. (It turns out that EngraveLab is useful once you get some details worked out.) As far PCB milling goes, I have had a hard time finding a commercial package that will take a Gerber file and create a toolpath to send to an engraver without using some messy intermediate step. One guide is available from UMass which relies on PCBMill web utilities by C. Scott Ananian. These are written in JAVA but have some portability issues with the compiler available for OSX (workgroup server). I have email the authors of the UMass webpage and Ananian about commercial packages and have found none so far. I will try to compile PCBMill on a FreeBSD system next and will post the results. If anyone has reasonably priced alternative software suggestions, please let me know! [...]
February 8th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
[...] chips and behind the microscope, I have slacked off and have spent my limited free time behind the EGX-300 engraver fabricating a some parts for a birthday present from me to myself. June was nice enough to make me [...]