Good, relatively low cost PCB layout SW?

[Phi Dung Mo]

The hypocrisy of that situation is that GC-Prevue's GWK file is really
just a collection of imported Gerber layers. It takes less than a minute to
import and set them up in a GWK, so what is the difference between a GWK
file and a collection of individual Gerbers?
I have to believe that these places (that don't want Gerbers or charge a
surcharge for Gerbers) are simply playing marketing games.

 

[Stuart Brorson]

: The hypocrisy of that situation is that GC-Prevue's GWK file is really
: just a collection of imported Gerber layers. It takes less than a minute to
: import and set them up in a GWK, so what is the difference between a GWK
: file and a collection of individual Gerbers?
: I have to believe that these places (that don't want Gerbers or charge a
: surcharge for Gerbers) are simply playing marketing games.

I do agree with you that refusing individual Gerbers seems silly.
However, I wonder if the idea is that the .gwk file organizes the
Gerbers into a defined stack-up order, and thereby minimizes the
possibility of mistakenly mis-ordering the layers during
manufacturing?

Yes, smart people name their Gerbers with names caling out the
ordering sequence, and also provide a stack-up in the README & fab
dwg. However, these PCB houses might be dealing with
less-than-clueful students and hobbiests. Also, it is always possible
for somebody in manufacturing to mess something up despite the most
carefully crafted design package.

Stuart

 

[Leon]

I think that's the main reason. I don't think they charged for Gerbers
originally, and I used to get the occasional phone call from them, as
the software I was using didn't identify the layers automatically and I
sometimes forgot to provide a file explaining what they were. The
software I use now generates names like "Elsie_en_2(Silkscreen
Top).gbr" so that it's quite obvious what they are. GC-Prevue is useful
anyway for checking that a border has been included and that drill
holes haven't. PCB-Pool don't mind them, but some other suppliers
object to them.

Leon

 

[Paul Urbanus]

How about the badly named but (I think???) otherwise well done "Rimu
PCB" and (if you please) "Rimu Schematic" from www.hutson.co.nz ?


Cordially,
Richard Kanarek

NOT affiliated with Hutson Systems in any way.

I purchased RimuPCB, and found it to be the most intuitive PCB layout
package I ever tried to use. I was productive almost immediately, and
finished a 4-layer surface mount design.

There was *ONE SMALL* problem - the gerbers for the inner (plane) layers
weren't generated properly. I sent an email to the developer, along with
my files, and a fixed version was available in less than 8 hours.

Urbite

 

[Boris Mohar]

I purchased RimuPCB, and found it to be the most intuitive PCB layout
package I ever tried to use. I was productive almost immediately, and
finished a 4-layer surface mount design.

There was *ONE SMALL* problem - the gerbers for the inner (plane) layers
weren't generated properly. I sent an email to the developer, along with
my files, and a fixed version was available in less than 8 hours.

Urbite

I have looked at it but not tried it yet. Nevertheless I am tempted to say
WOW! Did they drop a zero in the price?