Make hobbyist PCBs with professional CAD tools by modifying "Design Rules"

Step 15 Summary

This is just an example, based on some personal opinions. The key thought is
that the wider your traces, and the more space between them, the easier your
board will be to fabricate by hobbyists. And most PCB packages have settings
that can be modified so that they'll do most of the work for you...

Comments

[wrangler]

Well done! What I'd add, for those of us who do toner transfer, is the ulp (well, acknowledging that your topic is DRC, and not the add-on stuff) named drill-aid.ulp. I don't want the large pad holes on my board, I want max copper, which I get after the restring change, and just enough hole to guide my Dremel tool bit to the center of the pad. Drill-aid.ulp closes down the hole to a size that you specify in mm. Then, when you print it out with the laser printer for toner transfer, just enough hole is there to help steer the bit.

[flyingpumpkin]

 ulp?

[wrangler]

The ulp is "user language program", or some German phrase that means the same thing. A ulp is a script that automates some part of a process.

[ldestefa]

Thanks for the tips! Needed a bit of help and your explanations are clear and to the point. Thanks. I passed my PCB through a photopicture size laminator ($10) several times and it does an even transfer using laser semigloss paper or cheap inkjet gloss in an older laser printer (some inkjet gloss paper can jam up the laser printer). Set laser printer to 100%contrast. A sandwhichmaker with 2 pieces of flat 16 gauge steel over the PCB and paper is good too.

[josheeg]

I want to use sparkfun's pcb design service I can get something realy small for less than twenty and allows me to use *gasp* surface mount and 40 pin through hole. A instructable on that would be good.

[westfw]

Another instructable in how to do "output" from Eagle is coming and should be published "real soon now." It'll include info on drill-aid.ulp, as well as how to get similar output via the CAM processor to postscript.