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The boundaries of my AutoCAD drawing did not line up perfectly with the gerber and curves that I drew came out as jagged lines in gerber.

 

[QUOTE]

You both have been a huge help in getting me going with the ACE 3000 translator so I figured I’d email you two with my next high-maintenance question.

I have successfully converted my dwg files into gerber files but there were 2 problems.  First, the boundaries of my AutoCAD LT drawing (the dwg file) did not line up perfectly with the gerber picture.  It looks like there is a slight difference in the scale.  Second, any curves that I drew came out as jagged lines in gerber.  Since this is my first time using this conversion software, I’m sure that my fault is somewhere in the settings that I have selected.

I have attached a PDF to illustrate the problems.  You’ll need to zoom in to see the discrepancies.  The green sketch is my CAD drawing and the red is what the ACE 3000 produced in gerber.  It’s the same for every layer of every drawing.  I was hoping that someone would be able to email or call me with instructions to walk me through all the options in the conversion program to ensure that the gerber files are identical to the dwg files.

I’m so sorry for being that pain in the butt customer but I really appreciate all you are doing to help me out.  Thanks so much![/QUOTE]




Actually by opening your Gerber file I quickly say the problem.   For the Gerber export Options you selected Decimal digits of 1.  This means that your gerber file will only be accurate to 1/10th of a millimeter.  I would recommend selecting Decimal digits of 3 or higher.  See my quick tutorial:
http://screencast.com/t/ZXIQr6o07


Note:  I noticed that most likely you will want to fill the pads --- to fill areas requires  a continuous & closed boundary. So I restarted ACE and selected "Join", which connects those line & arc segments used to outline the pad.   In the demo I selected join for every layer, however you should only choose join for the metal layers that require the outlined areas to be filled.  For example: There's no need to join & fill a Silkscreen or Border layer.


Lastly, when using FILL if you happen to have "clear" islands inside your filled areas, I would recommend that you using the "De-Embed" layer option.  This allows ACE to determine what should be Dark or Clear.



Best regards,
Simon

http://www.numericalinnovations.com