[SOLVED] Cadstar: How to open Drill Hole

how to get drill drawing in cadstar 8.0

Hi All,
I am using Cadstar 9.0 for PCB Drawing. I want to print the PCB layout with drill holes open. How is it possible? I am also using Orcad 10.0 and it has the option to open drill holes.
Thanks in advance
Gladis

if you are talking about XR editor, then you can go to appearance option and click on visualisation tab and set the colour for drill hole.
you will get the result.
hope it solves your problem.

Ricky

Hi Gladis,

As Ricky told,In PR XR Editor ,you can view the drill holes.

Other possibility is,you use annulus instead of circular pads.

Please be more specific,you just want to view drills or any other application.

Regards,
abhi

Usually holes are needed to print artwork to film by home laser printer.

There's no any possibility to show in CADSTAR PCB. This feature added to wishes list a few months ago.

More Clearly Speaking I want to print the artwork with drill holes open by a laser printer. As Ricky and Abhi said it is possible to set color to drill holes, but while printing it is not working. Any more solutions.......

The only way I have found to do this is to turn the pads and vias into annulus as abhi002 said, then set the internal feature to the size you want. A pain in the but, but it works.

Abhi Thanks very much, annulus works.
But i hav rounded rectangle pads too ... Any further solution...!!!

Yes, don't adjust the pads at all.

Instead, for home use, do a mirrored drill drawing.

If you do a drill drawing that is mirrored so that you can stick it over the copper you have etched (use spray glue) you can then drill exactly the centres and then remove the drawing/paper & clean the board off.

Print the drawing, spray the rear of the drawing with glue or use a pritt stick etc, place the PCB on a light box with the copper side up, place the drawing over the PCB - aligning it & smooth out.

Cut off the excess and you can now drill the holes in the correct places.

Then when finished, remove the drawing and clean the board off with isopropanol etc.

You can also do this to make a legend for prototype boards, you just don't remove it & leave it one whilst fitting components.

gladiss said:

Abhi Thanks very much, annulus works.
But i hav rounded rectangle pads too ... Any further solution...!!!

Click to expand...

Hi Gladiss,

Internal feature option is available for annulus and rounded rectangle type pads.So,if you are having rounded rectangle type pads ,you can apply internal feature as the size of drill to print the artwork.

if you are having,only these type of shape,then there is not any issue.But if you are having any other type of pad shape say octagon,diamond, finger then there may be issue.So ,its only temporary solution.

Also printing of drills, is possible from Cadstar PReditor by setting the colors for drills say white.The only problem is you can not set scaling here,it will print the same ,what is on the screen.

Clearly speaking,Cadstar is not having option of opening drill holes.May be in some other versions,they can introduce.

Regards,
abhi

In mass production, they don't want holes in the pads.

I think it's because it blunts the drills even more going into FR4 or something.

So if your doing a board that is a prototype for something that is going to be a production board eventually, you will need to mess around with the assignments every time.

Which is why I do it the way I described, that way I keep the mass production pads with no holes throughout.

The other option, is to create a drill file for the board and read that into a greber viewer, then set it as using the same apeture list & set all it's apetures to be the size of the hoes that you want, then change it to a composite layer & print them both, this way you will not see the area covered by the composite layer.
Ergo you get holes in the pads.

Cadstar - Experienced users have many ways to get around it's failings. We have learnt from experience. lol

abhi002 said:

Internal feature option is available for annulus and rounded rectangle type pads.So,if you are having rounded rectangle type pads ,you can apply internal feature as the size of drill to print the artwork.

Click to expand...

Hi Abhi,

Internal feature option for Rounded Rectangle cannot be used for holes. It is just for shaping the pads from Rectangle to Rounded Rectangle. If we set internal feature as '0' then Rounded Rectangle pad will become a Rectangular one.

Anyway Thanks For Ur Help

Regards
Gladis

hi Gladis,

you are absolutely right about rounded rectangle pads.internal feature just change shape of pad from rectangle to rounded rectangle.I was thinking something and wrote something.I apologize for that reply.

Hi Cyberrat,

Your replies are really magnificent.


Regards,
abhi