Re: Need Volunteers to check Artwork - VTTC Staccato Controller

["Tesla list" <tesla-at-pupman-dot-com>]

Original poster: "by way of Terry Fritz <teslalist-at-qwest-dot-net>" <dhmccauley-at-spacecatlighting-dot-com>


Not true at all.  At lockheed martin, where we are supposed to have the most
sophisticated PCB design systems (Unix MENTOR), multiple layers of checking
and signatures, etc...
we have still not in the history of our company made a PCB board that was
right the first time.  There is always some trace that shouldn't be there,
or a trace which isn't connected,
etc...  It still blows my mind that even when all the Error Rules and design
guidelines are set-up, that the computer still manages to put two high
voltage traces too close to one another
(even though they were previously defined in the design rules) etc...

Dan


 > Luckily, you _don't_ have to manually check whether the PCB agrees to the
 > schematic!
 > That's something you all could (or, should ;-) use the schematics capture
 > and PCB layout prog for, which have error rules check and design rules
 > check, and consistency check.
 >
 > If the current schematics software doesn't allow PCB<=>schematics
 > consistency check, I'd recommend you take a look at t.ex. Eagle
 >
 >    http://www.cadsoft.de
 >
 > The freeware version is restricted in board size and to "only" two
 > copper layers, but it is still plenty for many small and medium sized
 > hobby projects. And commercial ones too.
 >
 > Very good prog IMHO, I can only recommend it! :-) Not very expensive
 > either.
 >
 > Only the autorouter sucks a bit, but so they all do... ;o)
 >
 > I for one never check the PCBs by hand, it takes way too long and
 > the manual checking is prone to mistakes anyway (at least those larger
 > boards with SMD stuff I'm building). One step less, and faster
 > prototyping.
 >
 > Btw some PCB shops also accept Eagle files, t.ex. www.olimex-dot-com, so you
 > don't have to separate all the layers when sending in the design. I'd
 > guess that in the US similar pcb shops exist (?)
 >
 > Hope this helps! Should hopefully ease & speed up your future projects
 > etc! :)
 >
 > cheers,
 >   - jfw
 >
 > --
 > *************************************************
 >   high voltage at http://www.hut.fi/~jwagner/tesla
 >   Jan OH2GHR
 >
 >
 >
 >
 >