Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site wateng.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!wateng!padpowell From: padpowell@wateng.UUCP (PAD Powell) Newsgroups: net.analog Subject: Re: Wintek circuit board layout system Message-ID: <1516@wateng.UUCP> Date: Mon, 8-Oct-84 13:04:24 EDT Article-I.D.: wateng.1516 Posted: Mon Oct 8 13:04:24 1984 Date-Received: Tue, 9-Oct-84 02:48:51 EDT References: <135@geowhiz.UUCP> Organization: U of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 75 Message-ID: <135@geowhiz.UUCP> > We are considering purchasing a Wintek circuit board layout system > and would like some information from other sites. The ad appears in the > October 4 issue of Electronic Design (page 216). This system costs $895 > and is designed to run on an IBM PC. > Some of the questions we are wondering about are: > 1) A real obvious one, can you really take the output of the Epson > printer or the Houston plotter straight to the photographer and > expect a decent PC quality negative ? This is very dependent on the following items: 1. Make BLOODY DAMN SURE that your printer has a 1:1 aspect ratio across the entire page, and over a the size of the plot/print 2. Makesure that your plotter can plot straight lines at the plotter speed used. 3. Paper will do horrible things- use as good a paper as you can. If you can, use drafting mylar with a very light matte. Now the following problems. First, the resolution of the artwork. The usual standard for PCB artwork is pretty high. Cruddy artwork almost always results in poor boards. If you want 25 mil (.025 of an inch) wide lines with 12 mil spaces, you better be sure that you have that spacing on the artwork. The quality of the edges of the lines is very important: the sharper the contrast and straighter the edge, the better the resulting negative will be. By the way, the Institute for Printed Circuits has a VERY informative set of booklets available to its members, and I bet that they will send you some if you ask. If you are a Research or University, they will allow you to join as an associate, at a ridiculously low fee, and they even provide you all the technical stuff you want at a ridiculously low price (free, some of it). In addition, they have a list of people who specialize in making artwork, some of whom will come and TELL you how to do it, FREE (well, we had to give them lunch...). > 2) What is the minimun line width and packing density that a system > such as this could produce ? If you print at 4:1. you can get .025 lines with .025 spaces, but I would be very carefull, and look at all "narrow" places. > 3) Would the use of such a system *really* be easier and more productive > than taping PC artwork by hand ? If you are making small boards, say 4 inches by 6 inches, with moderate spacing, and smallnumber of components, they win hands down. Larger boards are a real pain. The big problem is displaying information and detail. I have tried a system that had a very nice multiple window, and allowed you to display several different parts of the board in the windows, allowing you to route and place things. This was a blessing, and I cannot understand how I lived without it before. If you are trying to "pack" things, or doing really tight and accurate work, I strongly suggest a system that will produce photoplotter driver output. This is a pain, but the artwork quality will pay for the extra headaches. > 4) Is there any other such systems that we should be considering ? I hate to name names, but Racal-Redac has a nice system, the PC-Cad is a nice toy, SCICARDS by Scientific Calculations is nice, Calma, Applicon, CompterVision, are the 3 Big Guns, and have nice systems. > We are basically a research facility and typically produce a board > quanity in the 1-10 range, ie our production runs are smaller than industry > prototype runs. Can anyone out there give us a hand ? Since there is not > a lot of traffic in this newsgroup, please post replies directly to > net.analog. > Ben Abernathy > UW - Madison > Geophysics and Polar Research Center Patrick ("A Boardlayout a Day keeps Poverty Away") Powell