Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Milling Circuit Boards

Hi John,

Thanks for the update. Sounds like you had best results by drawing in a
CAD program, doing the outlines as toolpaths? Perhaps you'd like to
share the .DXF and Gcode files for this or a smaller example? I'd like
to study it!

Must have been a lot of work to do the offsets for each "trace island".

Alan KM6VV


kleinbauer@... wrote:

>
> Hi All,
> Here is an update! After spending countless hours using
> TOPO,TurboCad,Eagle and Target here are my findings. TOPO will
> take a BMP and turn it into a DXF. The problem with using TOPO
> to make circuit boards is, the program adds tons of up and down
> commands. The conversion is also plagued with the traveling
> salesman syndrome.
> Eagle with it's script looked great until I did a larger
> circuit board. Three 14pin ICs and some traces resulted in 16,000
> lines of code.
> Target had the same problems as Eagle to a lesser degree, but
> the program is not a easy to use as Eagle. I went back to TurboCad
> using a new approach. I found out that when you convert a DXF to
> a Gcode file, the machine will move the same way as you drew the
> outlines. The trick is to stay in one area at a time and to draw
> as much outline at one time as you can before hitting finish. Make
> each trace of the circuit board one long line. Then hit finish. If
> you draw each trace as several seperate lines, the machine will move
> up and down for each line. Jumping around on the drawing to touchup
> or correct will result in a final GCode that will move the same way.
> I have a GCode file that makes a six IC circuit with twelve
> transistors.(4"X6") My machine takes an hour and twenty-minutes to
> mill the board. I am hoping to cut this to 60 minutes while adding
> starter holes for components.
>
> John