Node: Vendor drill mapping, Previous: Measuring distances, Up: Getting Started



Vendor Drill Mapping

Pcb includes support for mapping drill holes to a specified set of sizes used by a particular vendor. Many PCB manufacturers have a prefered set of drill sizes and charge extra when others are used. The mapping can be performed on an existing design and can also be enabled to automatically map drill holes as vias and elements are instantiated.

The first step in using the vendor drill mapping feature is to create a resource file describing the capabilities of your vendor. The file format is the resource file format described in Resource Syntax. A complete example is given below.

     # Optional name of the vendor
     vendor = "Vendor Name"
     
     # units for dimensions in this file.
     # Allowed values:  mil/inch/mm
     units = mil
     
     # drill table
     drillmap = {
        # When mapping drill sizes, select the nearest size
        # or always round up.  Allowed values:  up/nearest
        round = up
     
        # The list of vendor drill sizes.  Units are as specified
        # above.
        20
        28
        35
        38
        42
        52
        59.5
        86
       125
       152
     
        # optional section for skipping mapping of certain elements
        # based on reference designator, value, or description
        # this is useful for critical parts where you may not
        # want to change the drill size.  Note that the strings
        # are regular expressions.
        skips = {
           {refdes "^J3$"}  # Skip J3.
           {refdes "J3"}  # Skip anything with J3 as part of the refdes.
           {refdes "^U[1-3]$" "^X.*"} # Skip U1, U2, U3, and anything starting with X.
           {value "^JOHNSTECH_.*"} # Skip all Johnstech footprints based on the value of a part.
           {descr "^AMP_MICTOR_767054_1$"} # Skip based on the description.
        }
     }
     
     # If specified, this section will change the current DRC
     # settings for the design.  Units are as specified above.
     drc = {
        copper_space = 7
        copper_width = 7
        silk_width = 10
        copper_overlap = 4
     }
     

The vendor resource is loaded using the LoadVendor action. This is invoked by entering:

     :LoadVendor(vendorfile)
     
from within Pcb. Substitute the file name of your vendor resource file for vendorfile. This action will load the vendor resource and modify all the drill holes in the design as well as the default via hole size for the various routing styles.

Once a vendor drill map has been loaded, new vias and elements will automatically have their drill hole sizes mapped to the vendor drill table. Automatic drill mapping may be disabled under the "Settings" menu. To re-apply an already loaded vendor drill table to a design, choose "Apply vendor drill mapping" from the "Connects" menu.

See Actions for a complete description of the actions associated with vendor drill mapping.

Note that the expressions used in the skips section are regular expressions. See Regular Expressions for an introduction to regular expressions.