Protel DXP drill hole

[samuelr]

nc drill dxp

Hi

I am trying to learn to use Protel DXP. What is the layer i need to get the PCB guys to drill or mill onto the PCB? Protel seems to have drill guide and drill drawing.

TKS

 

[House_Cat]

dxp drillhole

You need to generate NC Drill Files, and give your fab the TXT file that is generated. It is the ASCII Excellon drill file. The DRL file that is generated is an old binary format that very few fabricators use anymore.

You should put any notes you want the fabricator to follow on the Drill Drawing Layer, along with the special string .Legend. Note the dot at the beginning of the string. That tells DXP the string is special, and will cause the software to automatically generate a Drill Table in the Gerber file for the Drill Drawing.

You should include a mechanical layer with the board outline on it to be used by the fab as a routing guide for the board.

 

[samuelr]

dxp drill legend

ok but when i am using protl DXP do how do I define the location i want them to drill at...you mean its not a layer like drill guide or something like that? Or let them know that drilling is on the location where it says drill guide?

 

[House_Cat]

drill hole in protel

The holes in the PCB are defined by pads. You can't have a hole without defining a pad. Wherever you place a thru-hole pad on the PCB, a drill is defined by the size of the hole assignment in the pad.

The location and size of those holes in the pads are used when generating the NC Drill files, and by the ".Legend" string on the Drill Drawing layer to generate a drill table.

The fab is only interested in the NC drill files. The Drill Drawing, and drill table, are just there to provide a visual confirmation check - not for actually drilling the board. The NC drill file is the one they load into their multi-head drilling machine.