How to edit the Board Outline

[Sal Hernandez]

Sunstone PCB123 currently supports only a single continuous Board Outline. You can modify the default square or rectangular shape to meet your needs as long as the shape is a continuous polygon.

To modify the Board Outline just enable the Select Object tool button and left-click and release an existing corner to move it to a new location. If you left-click and release in the center of a segment a new corner will be added to the polygon to allow the creation of a complex shape. Press the "G" key to set the working grid to a smaller value if you need more precision in the placement of the corners of the Board Outline. Any notches in the board outline must be at least .1” wide to be routed through the PCB123 service.

If you would like to create a rounded side or corner right click on the side or corner and select convert to arc.

[idbackup]

Hi Sal,

Besides editing the outline can you talk about creating a outline using the dxf import feature. I have tried this with some success but it is not straight forward. This would be the easiest way to get a outline that matches my product housing along with locations of switches and buttons. The problem is it creates a lot of extra lines within the outline and when I try to edit them out all goes bad. I'm thinking I must be missing something here or there are special requirements for the dxf file.

Thanks,

Leonard

[Sal Hernandez]

DFX import is pretty limited because it does not support arcs. Any arcs in the outline will make a mess of your outline. Instead you will need to recreate the outline using coordinate information from you autocad file.

You need to go corner by corner and determine the coordinates so you can mold the PCB123 board outline to match. I would recommend using the bottom left corner as the reference point when taking measurements in your autocad file.

1. measure the distance from the bottom left corner of your dxf to the first corner in your outline. Write down the x,y positions.

2. Go to PCB123 and set your grid to a small value that will allow you to precisely place your corner. 1 mil is usually fine.

3. Left click and release a line segment or corner of the pcb123 board outline. You should be able to move the mouse around and the outline moves with it.

4. Press the x key on your keyboard and type in the measurement of the first corner from your dxf file x,y the press enter.

5. PCB123 will jump to the location with the outline attached. Press enter again to place the corner.

6. Repeat for each corner of you board outline.