Assembly layer in P-CAD 2004

Hi everyone,

I am having trouble in creating an assembly drawing in P-CAD for my boards. I use my own created library, but when I try to define the assembly layer I cannot use the RefDes attribute (I already used it for the silk and P-CAD will only let me use it once). As I import the netlist for the board in Tango format, the only info I have for my component is the component name (in RefDes) and the footprint (in Type). I cannot find a way for placing the component name on the assembly layer, how could I do this? Is there another way to generate the assembly drawing? Can anyone offer me an example for the procedure?

I would also like any info about generating the mechanical drawing and zero point, if anyone is familiar with this. Unfortunatelly I have problems with the assembly house, I really need these answers.

Thank you

Mestere Manole,

I don't have installed PCAD for testing but it might work by copying the refdes from silk screen to another unused layer. This is a common way for CADs which don't allow multiple RefDes. It works in Eagle.

What is zero point ?

good luck,
melc codobelc

Salutare melcule,

I was looking for a solution to this problem from the library "stage". I have many components and I don't want to edit the board manually. The problem is that I need the RefDes on the assembly layer as well as on the silk mask, and not in the same position (on the assy I want to put the reference inside the outline).

I found a possible solution, but it's not so straight forward. I will create a new library in whick I will delete the RefDes on the silk and add it to the assembly layer. After generating all the Gerber (including the silk), I will load the second library and generate the assy. It's quite annoying that I have to work with two sets of libraries, but I cannot find another solution at the moment. It would be nice if I could load the value in the RefDes field into another field (by example Reference, which is empty), but I don't know how to do this automatically in P-CAD. Maybe someone more experienced in P-CAD can help.

About the zero piont, I'm not sure also. I assume they want the coordinates of the origin, but I don't know how they want it (text, graphic - Gerber). I will ask them for details, I thought there was some kind of standard format for this.


Keep in touch and thanks.