ultiboard outline

[p.martel]

Hi,

I'm using Ultiboard 7.  I'm trying to lay out a circular board with 3 semicircular cuts in the edge.  It seems easy to generate a circular board using either the board wizard or just dfrawing a circle on the board outline layer.  How do I get the cuts?   I've attached a file showing a 4in circle with 3 0.5 in circles (2 lines on top SS layer to help me line things up).  I want to remove the intersection of the small circles from the larger circle.

   Best wishes,

   --Phil Martel

[lacy]

I have a partial solution. I have tired to see if there was a way of doing what you want to do with the circles and I can't find a way to do it that way. What I did come up with was instead of using a circle is to use an arc. This gives the a half circle where you want it, but it does not cure the problem of removing the originial board outline between the points on the arc.

You can experiment with this and maybe it can give a clue as to how to proceed. I will continue to see if there are any other solutions. The NI team might have a better suggestion in the meantime.

I hope this help some (probably not much though)

Have a Nice Day

Edit: On further review, The only way I have even remotely been able to do this is to place arcs where your small circles are, deleted the orignal board outline and use the bezier graphic option to draw the main outline. It is a pain in the butt doing it this way. You will just have experiment with it and see if you can use these options or not. You can find these under Place>Graphics.

One other option to try and I will try this shortly, is to draw your board outline in something like MS Paint and inport it. That might make things simpler. I believe your version can do this, but I am not sure.

Message Edited by lacy on 09-25-2007 09:45 AM

[lacy]

I tried thye MS Paint option and it doesn't work the way I was hoping it would. There is a DXF import option, but I don't have the software to try it to know if it would work to edit this board outline and be able to re-import it.

I am sorry, but I think I have exhausted all the options that I know about.

I hope I was of some help to you.

Have A Nice Day.

[p.martel]

Lacy,

Thanks for trying. 

   Best wishes,

   --Phil

[p.martel]

Hi,

One option would be to define a set of 6 arcs, 3 large and centered at (0,0) and 3 small and centered at (2,0), (-1,sqrt(3)) and (-1,-sqrt(3)).  I can do this approximately by hand, but I'll need to refine the parameters.  The arc parameters seem to be a start and end point OR a center and radius.  I don't see how to modify both sets of data

   Best wishes,

   --Phil Martel

[lacy]

I need to ask you a couple of questions about your version since the one I am using is Version 10.0.

1) Do you have the capability to import DXF Files?

2) Under board properties do you have a tab there that says "Attributes"?

I have done your board outline using a DXF editor, but I need to know if you can use it or not and by answering the above questions I can determine that.

Answer soon.

Have a Nice Day

[haklesup]

Its not an elegant solution but you might get away with placing large unplated thru holes at the notch locations.  Ask your fab's salesperson if they can tolerate this before you go too far. 

Else you can just put it out there in the gerbers as you have it now (with overlapping circles and arcs) and use a fab drawing to communicate the actual shape to the manufacturer (they like those anyway).  They can fix it up in the CAM software before they make it and send you PDFs of the layers for approval before building it if required.

[p.martel]

Lacy,

Yes, I can import DXF files.  I had considered using one.  I have access to TurboCad, but it's just one more program to try figuring out.

   Best wishes,

   --Phil Martel

[p.martel]

Hi,

I tried outting a hole at the notch location.  I may have been doing something wrong, but UltiBoard did not seem to let me drill a hole partially outside of the board area.

   Best wishes,

   --Phil Martel

[lacy]

Well I was going to post the DXF file for you, but the forum will not allow that. Darn. You can e-mail me at lacy@cwv.net and I will mail it to you with the instructions if you would want to do that. Just make sure the subject line says "Board Outline" so I don't miss it.

I can't post the project file I created, because you are using an older version and wouldn't be able to open it.

Let me know what you want to do.

Have a Nice Day