Eagle, Gerbers and FastTrack

A

Al Borowski

Guest
Hi all,

I'm trying to decide if I should buy Eagle or not. The program itself
seems pretty decent, but I'm having trouble getting the resulting PCB
made. My usual manufacturer is Fastrack. When I sent them my Gerbers I
was told they weren't any good - the tracks looked OK but the holes
were spread out to an area about 50x the size of the circuit board.

Fastrack say

"We use your excellon drill file to determine what size holes to drill
and where. Plated and Non Plated holes should be included in one drill
file, with plated and non-plated holes having different tool numbers.
Format required: Excellon Format, ASCII Odd / None, 2.4 Trailling Zero
Suppression, English Units, No step and repeats. "

It turns out that Eagle produced drill files with Leading zero
suppression and is unable to use Trailing zero suppression. But I was
later told this was a typo and Fastrack wants Leading zero suppression
after all.

So has anyone had any luck getting eagle or gerber files fabbed by
Fastrack? I've always used Protel and never had to muck around with
gerbers before.

Thanks,

Al
 
On Aug 5, 11:35 pm, Al Borowski <al.borow...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi all,

I'm trying to decide if I should buy Eagle or not. The program itself
seems pretty decent, but I'm having trouble getting the resulting PCB
made. My usual manufacturer is Fastrack. When I sent them my Gerbers I
was told they weren't any good - the tracks looked OK but the holes
were spread out to an area about 50x the size of the circuit board.

Fastrack say

"We use your excellon drill file to determine what size holes to drill
and where. Plated and Non Plated holes should be included in one drill
file, with plated and non-plated holes having different tool numbers.
Format required: Excellon Format, ASCII Odd / None, 2.4 Trailling Zero
Suppression, English Units, No step and repeats. "

It turns out that Eagle produced drill files with Leading zero
suppression and is unable to use Trailing zero suppression. But I was
later told this was a typo and Fastrack wants Leading zero suppression
after all.

So has anyone had any luck getting eagle or gerber files fabbed by
Fastrack? I've always used Protel and never had to muck around with
gerbers before.

Thanks,

Al
Click to expand...
I don't know about the particulars, but Eagle is a popular package. If
your PCB company can't handle the file, go elsewhere. I'd recommend
www.pcbcart.com for prototypes.

Dave.
 
On Aug 6, 7:37 am, "David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote:
On Aug 5, 11:35 pm, Al Borowski <al.borow...@gmail.com> wrote:



Hi all,

I'm trying to decide if I should buy Eagle or not. The program itself
seems pretty decent, but I'm having trouble getting the resulting PCB
made. My usual manufacturer is Fastrack. When I sent them my Gerbers I
was told they weren't any good - the tracks looked OK but the holes
were spread out to an area about 50x the size of the circuit board.

Fastrack say

"We use your excellon drill file to determine what size holes to drill
and where. Plated and Non Plated holes should be included in one drill
file, with plated and non-plated holes having different tool numbers.
Format required: Excellon Format, ASCII Odd / None, 2.4 Trailling Zero
Suppression, English Units, No step and repeats. "

It turns out that Eagle produced drill files with Leading zero
suppression and is unable to use Trailing zero suppression. But I was
later told this was a typo and Fastrack wants Leading zero suppression
after all.

So has anyone had any luck getting eagle or gerber files fabbed by
Fastrack? I've always used Protel and never had to muck around with
gerbers before.

Thanks,

Al

I don't know about the particulars, but Eagle is a popular package. If
your PCB company can't handle the file, go elsewhere. I'd recommendwww.pcbcart.comfor prototypes.

Dave.
Click to expand...
BTW, PCBCART take Eagle files directly.

Dave.
 
Hi David,

Thanks for the reply. I'm now using PCBCart for protos - they leave my
old manufacturer in the dust. Thanks a ton for suggesting them.

Al
 
On Aug 13, 10:43 pm, Al Borowski <al.borow...@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi David,

Thanks for the reply. I'm now using PCBCart for protos - they leave my
old manufacturer in the dust. Thanks a ton for suggesting them.
Click to expand...
No problem. I've used them a few times now for home projects and they
are hard to beat. Not the cheapest, but far from the most expensive,
and their service is excellent. They handle odd-ball stuff really well
too.

Dave.
 
On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:53:31 -0700, "David L. Jones" <altzone@gmail.com> wrote:

No problem. I've used them a few times now for home projects and they
are hard to beat. Not the cheapest, but far from the most expensive,
and their service is excellent. They handle odd-ball stuff really well
too.
Click to expand...
Just had a look, and they beat my most usual small-run house on price.

I presume the quality is pretty good too. If so I may give them a try in the
near future.
 
On Aug 14, 12:39 pm, budgie <m...@privacy.net> wrote:
On Mon, 13 Aug 2007 05:53:31 -0700, "David L. Jones" <altz...@gmail.com> wrote:

No problem. I've used them a few times now for home projects and they
are hard to beat. Not the cheapest, but far from the most expensive,
and their service is excellent. They handle odd-ball stuff really well
too.

Just had a look, and they beat my most usual small-run house on price.

I presume the quality is pretty good too. If so I may give them a try in the
near future.
Click to expand...
Yes, quality is pretty good, I've had no issues so far.

Dave.
 
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