Printed Circuit Board Assembly & PCB Design SMT Electronics Assembly Manufacturing Forum

Printed Circuit Board Assembly & PCB Design Forum

SMT electronics assembly manufacturing forum.


x-y data generation

Dougs

#32378

x-y data generation | 1 February, 2005

Has anyone heard of any software that can be used to clean up or manipulate x-y placement data. We are a small contract manufacturer with various customers, some who supply good x-y data to component centres and some who supply x-y data to a pin or the centre of an edge. Up until now we have been using a gerber viewer to find the centre positions of any out of position parts but this can be a slow process if there are lots of components misplaced. ideally we'd like to have something where we can quickly generate x-y data to our datum points to make the programming process more repeatable.

any help would be much appreciated.

cheers

reply »

#32399

x-y data generation | 1 February, 2005

Try: http://www.gerbergrab.co.uk

We have no relationship, nor receive benefit from the company referenced above.

reply »

Passerby

#32400

x-y data generation | 1 February, 2005

I may be wrong, but I think one of smtnet's advertisers have something that does this too.. No idea how good, bad or ugly it is or even if appropriate, but try:

http://www.unisoft-cim.com/gerber_connection.htm

reply »

avi

#35318

x-y data generation | 6 July, 2005

I am working for a software house that offers a tool that does exactly that. in case that your request is still valid, email me to avir@kulmos.com

reply »


aj

#35320

x-y data generation | 6 July, 2005

Doug,

Why not insist on the smae fromat from all customers. They can export center cad-data as easy as any other type.

Do you send a DFM to your customers?

If you tell them that it will improve your turn around time they will send you what you want!

Why pay for a software tool when you can sort it out in this way..

aj

reply »

#35323

x-y data generation | 6 July, 2005

#35325

x-y data generation | 6 July, 2005

dougs

#35326

x-y data generation | 6 July, 2005

aj, what do you do if your customers engineers cant be bothered sorting out the CAD data, or if you tell them you need it in a certain format and it just keeps coming in the same way anyway, we can't rely on our customers ( or some of them in particular ) to supply this info properly. we do advise them but it's not always heeded. what tends to happen as well is that you dont know the placement data is wrong until it goes on your line, then it's quicker to fix it by eye than hunt around for the right info.

reply »

Jack

#35327

x-y data generation | 6 July, 2005

Doug,

It always seems easier to fix one or two problems by eye at the time. The real problem comes when the customer wants the same board run again later. You're okay if you saved the corrected placement routine, but if you end up moving the job to a different line, the hand adjusted data might not be enough.

You might want to be more proactive and invest in a program that can handle data in different formats (gerber, native cad, scanned PCBs, p/p files, etc). The software can be used to verify centroids (and a whole lot more, like PCB variations as an incomming inspection tool for different board lots).

Proactively checking the centroid for each component can be done automatically before the job hits the line. That gives you correct data for the PCB and reduces online adjustments. (This helps the boss by keeping the mcahines build product not sitting idle while placements are adjusted manually.)

(Note - this is just my $0.02 on the topic)

reply »

dougs

#35397

x-y data generation | 8 July, 2005

Jack,

Your telling me to do what i wanted to do anyway, My first question on the thread was where do i get this type of software.

reply »

Jack

#35400

x-y data generation | 8 July, 2005

Doug -- I think ScanCAD has the product you're looking for . . . call them at 303-697-8888. (ask for Isabelle or Bill)

reply »

BoB

#35404

x-y data generation | 8 July, 2005

Try Aegis or Unicam they both sell a pretty good Cad/Gerber/Ascii converter for most SMT equipment

reply »

Encapsulation Dispensing, Dam and Fill, Glob Top, CSOB

Manufacturing Software