gEDA-dev: [pcb] first alpha version of pcb-dxf-HID

[Bert Timmerman]

On Thu, 2008-01-17 at 10:05 +0000, Dan Andersson wrote:
> First question that came to my mind was - Why?
> 

Because I wanted to be able to generate a DXF file with xref's to
insert external references of 3D modeling blocks of packages in a
mechanical cad application.

> ALL pcb producers with the "professional" stamp have DXF to Gerber converters 
> already - which they are used to work with. By introducing one more source of 
> errors, you might not do yourself any favour...
> 

IMHO, this has nothing to do with gerbers :) 

pcb does gerbers already :)

> It's easy to convert DXF to Gerber. The pitfalls are the management of the 
> aperture diameters, which have to be done more or less manually - if your 
> Gerber plotter have fixed apertures, Also, the older Gerber formats didn't 
> deal with drilling and milling data.
> 

An exporter for milling data would be nice.

Then we could make prototype boards without the chemical stuff.

Then again, don't ignore/overlook the respiratory hazards/problems FR4
milling could inflict.

> Also, a professional pcb house want the drill file to be optimised ( or charge 
> you to do it ).
> 
> I did the Fortran IV dxf-gerber conversion in a PDP11-23 and the Gerber 
> plotter was driven by a HP1000 and we had Northern Europes largest Gerber 
> plotter. The Drill data paper punch was an ASR33.
> So it wasn't yesterday...
> 
> 
> //Dan, M0DFI

Nice, would it happen to be free as in "free beer" or as in "freedom of
speech" :)

Portability ?

The FSF would say "show us the code !"

Kind regards,

Bert Timmerman.