How can we help you today?

Start a new topic
Discussions FAB 3000 - Gerber/CAM Software FAB 3000 - Gerber/CAM Software

I noticed a strange situation with the display of drillings. When it imports all the files together everything is fine.

I noticed a strange situation with the display of drilings.
When it imports all the files together everything is fine.

The problem starts when I skip one of the files. For example, I won't import the gerb.gtl layer.
Then the drilings is displayed incorrectly.

GTL and GBL must always be simultaneously for the holes to be displayed correctly.


 

Thanks for your question and providing sample files.  This is actually one of the most common questions for all CAM/Gerber viewer software.

The problem is your sample NC drill file does not include any format information about where the decimal place exists for each coordinate given (i.e Integer/Decimal digit settings).  

For example here's the first 3 lines of your sample Drill file:
X05792Y0216239     <------Where should the decimal be placed for these coordinates?
X06937Y02157 <------ (6.937, 2.157) or is the coordinate (0.6937, 0.2157)
X07001Y021224     <-----

Note:  Some PCB CAD software will include the digit information in the header, or in a comment line stating the digits to use, or at very least a readme.txt file that tells others what drill settings to use when importing.  FAB 3000/DFM automatically scans for all these clues automatically.

However if your NC files do not have any information about the digits to use, then there are 3 solutions:

(1). If you know the correct Integer/Decimal digits, then enter them in the Format Settings... before importing your Drill file.  

(2). Load the Drill along with your gerber files.  When FAB/DFM loads the Drill file it will look for Pads in the Gerber files and automatically determine the correct Digit format (i.e scale) to use.  This is what is happening for you - when gerbers are included: everything loads fine.


(3). If you're the PCB designer (who generated this file) review the options (in your PCB CAD software) used when export to NC Drill.  Many times these software tools have an option to include the Digit information in the Drill header.


Note:  Lastly, even after loading the drill and it seems scaled incorrectly, you can always use the command: Scale Layers X/Y... (located in menu: Edit | Layers), to scale the drill layer either 10X larger or 1/10X smaller to fit into your board (the drill tool sizes are not affected).


Thanks again, and please let me know if you have any other questions.


Best regards,

Simon

Login or Signup to post a comment
More topics in FAB 3000 - Gerber/CAM Software
See all 1028 topics