How can I print a green mask with Protel?

[Medtronic]

Hi all
please can any one help me how can i print a green mask with protel
i wish it will be in detail cause i try many time but fail
thanks too much

 

[House_Cat]

green mask layer

In Protel, the solder mask layer is a negative layer. That is, any lines or marks on that layer (as seen on the screen) are openings in the actual mask that will be produced from the Gerber files.

The color of the on-screen display for the mask layer are set by hitting the "L" hotkey, and then clicking on the color box next to the name of the mask layer.

When you print the mask layer, all you are going to get is a print of the openings in the layer. To adjust the color of that print, you go to the prefernces setting from pint preview, or Printer Setup>Advanced.

If you mean how do you tell your PCB fabricator to make the mask green, that is done with a note on the Drill Drawing that you supply to the fabricator when you send him the Gerber files.

 

[Medtronic]

solder mask protel

thanks too much for replay
but i ask for printing solder mask (green mask) with a printer i'll not generat a gerper file
can you explain how

 

[House_Cat]

solder mask output in protel

You cannot print the solder mask as it would appear when actually placed on a board. Protel makes a negative image of the solder mask. If you print from Protel, you will get an image of just the openings in the mask.

To print a green image of just the openings in the mask, You need to go to "File>Page Setup>Advanced>Preferences", and set the color of the solder mask to green.

Tell me what version of Protel you are using, and I'll give you step-by-step instructions on how to print just the mask layer. Remember, what you can print will NOT look like the mask on a finished circuit board - most circuit board programs, including Protel, make a NEGATIVE image of the mask layer.

 

[Medtronic]

printing protel artwork

thanks too much for replay
i use a protel v2.8
thanks too much again

 

[House_Cat]

print out protel composite

In Protel 2.8, you can print the solder mask image in green by doing the following:

- Go to 'File>Print>Composite'.
- Click on the choice at the top right that says "Color Mode - Color/Gray"
- Click on the button that says "Output"
- Click on the button that says "All Layers Off"
- Click on the box to put a check mark in front of "Solder Mask - Top (or Bottom)"
- Double click on the color box next to "Top (or Bottom)" and choose your green color. Click on "OK"
- Click on the box to put a check mark in front of "Special - Multilayer"
- Double click on the color box next to "Multilayer" and choose your green color. Click on "OK"
- Click on "OK" at the bottom of the Setup dialog
- Now make sure your printer settings are what you want, and click on "OK" at the bottom of the Composite Artwork Printer Setup dialog

Your solder mask will print out on the selected printer device in color. Once again, what you are going to see is the negative image of the solder mask. There's no way to print the image as a color positive (as it would appear on the finished board solder mask).

You have to use the "Composite" print choice instead of the "Final" print choice to get color. The prints under the "Final" menu choice are done in black-and-white.