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PCB Design Using Vector Art

L

Len Stuart

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a circuit design that contains about 12 standard components,
and need to produce a few dozen, single-sided PCB's.

However, it involves etching a special (large) antenna design that can
only be produced as vector art.

Rather than try to combine this with a Gerber file, I thought of doing
the whole circuit as vector art. I believe some manufacturers can
still work from black and white print copy.

The final result would be something like the photo resist art for DIY
projects published in various hobby magazines. I am happy to do the
drilling by hand.

The question is, what software, or combination thereof, would best
suit this purpose?

Hopefully, something more dedicated to EDA than a generic vector
package like Corel or Illustrator where I would need to individually
create pads and tracks.

Len Stuart
 
N

Nico Coesel

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a circuit design that contains about 12 standard components,
and need to produce a few dozen, single-sided PCB's.

However, it involves etching a special (large) antenna design that can
only be produced as vector art.

Why can it only be produced as vector art? I don't know which PCB
package you are using but many packages allow importing of bitmap
images (sometimes using third party tools).
Rather than try to combine this with a Gerber file, I thought of doing
the whole circuit as vector art. I believe some manufacturers can
still work from black and white print copy.

I wouldn't go that route. For packages with many pins a slight error
will make the PCB hard to assemble.
 
P

petrus bitbyter

Jan 1, 1970
0
Len Stuart said:
I have a circuit design that contains about 12 standard components,
and need to produce a few dozen, single-sided PCB's.

However, it involves etching a special (large) antenna design that can
only be produced as vector art.

Rather than try to combine this with a Gerber file, I thought of doing
the whole circuit as vector art. I believe some manufacturers can
still work from black and white print copy.

The final result would be something like the photo resist art for DIY
projects published in various hobby magazines. I am happy to do the
drilling by hand.

The question is, what software, or combination thereof, would best
suit this purpose?

Hopefully, something more dedicated to EDA than a generic vector
package like Corel or Illustrator where I would need to individually
create pads and tracks.

Len Stuart

How large is large? What's so special about the antenna design that it
cannot be made up by copper traces from the PCB-design package? I don't know
EDA but it doesn't seem to be a big problem using EAGLE for instance.

petrus bitbyter
 
S

SoothSayer

Jan 1, 1970
0
I have a circuit design that contains about 12 standard components,
and need to produce a few dozen, single-sided PCB's.

However, it involves etching a special (large) antenna design that can
only be produced as vector art.

Rather than try to combine this with a Gerber file, I thought of doing
the whole circuit as vector art. I believe some manufacturers can
still work from black and white print copy.

The final result would be something like the photo resist art for DIY
projects published in various hobby magazines. I am happy to do the
drilling by hand.

The question is, what software, or combination thereof, would best
suit this purpose?

Hopefully, something more dedicated to EDA than a generic vector
package like Corel or Illustrator where I would need to individually
create pads and tracks.

Len Stuart

All you need to do is create properly feducialed (feducialized?)
image sets which are all to scale.

A simple, modern PC printer has the fine registration resolution needed
for clean artwork.

No tape up needed.

So, you decide your feducials, component placements AND drill holes
first, and make sure that template underlies any layers you intend to
match up.

There are PCB makers which will still make a PCB from photo artworks.

You can even find a photo shop somewhere that will take precisely
scaled photo negatives (or positives) from you print outs and they WILL
be precise and properly registered.

One could not do that back before printers could be relied on for
registration integrity from print to print.
 
S

SoothSayer

Jan 1, 1970
0
SoothSayer wrote:
Be advised that the US Government has nothing to do with "feducials";
it is spelled "fiducials".

What is the short term for the tongue making the fart sound?
 
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