I made a DXF in autocad (saved in R12, 2002, 2004 versions) of a complex board shape that I would like to import to Easy-PC version 11. When I import the file to the PCB it errors and only places the closed circles. I can import it as a shape or dimension fine but not as a board.
I'm sure I need to flatten in autocad or something before importing but Im stuck. Any ideas?
Well its a REAL pain in the butt but the only way I was able to get this to work was to do the following:
1. import autocad dxf as shapes>dimensions 2. create new layer called router and put the dxf on that layer 3. export router layer as dxf from easy-pc 4. re-import as board layer
This work-around works but it would have been nice to just import the dxf directly in the first place to the board outline.
Once imported, select the outline you want as a board and select "change shape type" and select "board".... see if that works.
I use dxf import all the tome, normally import everything onto a single layer (i.e. information layer) then do as above to get the board outline etc etc
The problem here is that if your DXF isn't a continuous line then it won't be recognised as a board, so your only option is to import as a shape.
The series of shapes that you get butting end to end still won't convert to a board until you've selected them all and used the merge shapes function to join them together.
Check the properties of the new shape to make sure the 'Closed' box is checked, and you'll have no trouble converting it to a board.
We had a similar report recently from another customer. Currently the whole issue hangs on getting the right shape out into the DXF, with splines flattened to circular arcs, and all adjacent shapes merged together.
Some success has been reported using the 'JOIN' command in AutoCAD to splice the adjacent open shapes into one contiguous closed polygon, but this doesn't always seem to be successful.
We may need to look at extending our 'merge shapes' command to include some kind of tolerance on the endpoints to help link together these adjacent shapes into one. I have added this to our support database to be considered.
autocad board import
Posted - 02 Nov 2009 : 18:10:59
