Welcome to the CADSTARguys Blog - Information, hints, tips and my waffle on the CADSTAR Printed Circuit Board design suite.

Please note that all names used are completely fictitious and any thing written is my own personal opinion or knowledge and not related in any way to either my employers or their customers (or Zuken).
Also this is not a replacement for proper Maintenence/support and you should read the help files before asking anything techy:).

Wednesday 11 January 2012

Wow, has it been that long since I last posted anything on here?

It's been a tad hectic at work & home, however as no one has posted any comments asking anything I had nothing to lose.

How about a nice long piece on post processing?
(that will give me an excuse to disappear for a while :)

8 comments:

PaulW said...

I'm a Cadstar user too. I've just read a few of your blogs and look fwd to reading the rest. I haven't seen anything on test point addition (in Pred) and could do with some more pointers on that dreaded report generator.

Ta.

Gert said...

I found out that odb++ output is not wysiwyg.
On the silkscreen there appears a user attribute, that is made not visible in the colour profile.
I wonder if there are other sneaky attributes popping up in odb.

Unknown said...

If it is on the silkscreen layer then it will be output. ODB++ is not like WYSIWIG Gerbers made using colour files.

When designing a board that you intend to output ODB++ with then you need to consider this in all design functions - I.E. do not put something on the silkscreen layer instead have other layers for items such as attributes etc.

E.G. It is common for someone to find the 2nd component name in the ODB++ because they left it on the silkscren layer rather than make sure it is on the assembly layer.

Gert said...

OK, so I have to be sure all attributes of a specific layer are visible in order to see what odb output will look like.
Does this mean that the items, suppressed during postprocess to a gerber photoplotter, are also visible in odb?
And because of that, suppressing can not be used for odb?

Unknown said...

Correct, if its on the layer it will be output.

While I am not 100% certain what is included in what is output, I do not think that templates and areas are included in this.

TRy it with some designs, put stuff on the solkscreen layer and see what comes out in ODB++, it should only take you 5 mins to test what is output.

For a free viewer, DMFnow can import and view it.

Gert said...

I have tried different settings and I am quite sure I have everything covered in the colour files.
I hoped to find a general setting, so I would not have to test it again with next releases.
As ODB++ viewer I use the Pentalogix ViewMate, what does DMF stand for?

Unknown said...

Gert, your colour files have absolutly nothing to do with ODB++ output.

With ODB++ it outputs based on how the design is constructed, so for example your vias - there will be pad apatures on the resist layers unless you make reassignments of zero size on the resist layers for your vias.

Spend a little time reviewing your ODB++ ouput and if you see something that is there then consider how the board could have been designed so that it is not there but somewhere else to achive the desired results.

Using colour files make producing Gerbers easy and us lazy - we do things that we should not because we know that things can be turned off in the colour file. ODB++ requires a more rigid approach to how we have the board configured.

Unknown said...

Did I say DMF - I meant DFMnow!
http://www.numericalinnovations.com/dfmnow.html

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