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is there a way to add score lines to make PCB separation easier?
Occasionally, with many different shaped PCB on a single panel, having just score lines around the PCB can result in islands or pcbs that do not align and share a common score line. Under these circumstances, a PCB can be isolated and can not be split away easily. A few well placed score lines can be a big help. I have been exploring, adding the score lines then copy a single line from the side of one of the PCB and paste the individual lines around the PCB. Being able to just manually put in lines would be a big help
Your suggestion to add a layer and draw traces is interesting but how do these traces become identified as score line in the Gerber files?
Great question. Gerber is just a text file with X,Y coordinates and shapes; so you don't have to worry about it being identified by gerber. Essentially by just creating a layer and drawing the score lines you want (then exporting to gerber), you PCB fabricator will use the coordinates from the gerber file to control his NC machine to add the score lines into your panel. To draw the score lines, please perform the following:
1. First create a Panel, and insert your jobs into the panel.
2. Create a new layer for your score lines (goto menu: Edit | Layers | Add Layers...). Select 1 for number of layers, and then you'll see the layer added into the layer table control (located on the left of the FAB 3000 screen). You can rename the layer here to "score" or anything else you like.
3. Now lets create a DCode to use for your score lines. Goto aperture table (menu: Setup | Apertures Table...), select an empty dcode, and then add a Circle with a diameter of 10 mils. (You can choose any width, however 10 mils seems to be fine).
4. Add Trace (goto menu: Add | Trace), select first point of score line and then second. Repeat until you are satisfied.
Note: To help aide you in manually drawing the score lines you can modify the "Grid" (menu: Setup | Set Grid...), set Ortho Mode to 90 degrees (menu: View | Ortho | 90), and have the cursor snap to the grid (menu: View | Snap | Grid). There are many other ways to manually add the score lines (you could draw one score line and then use the Array function or copy to repeat the score lines. You could also add the score lines into each job, and then when you insert each job into the panel, a score line will automatically be there.
Here's a simple online demo movie to use for your reference.
bkurple
Note: It's important that you first load each PCB design (i.e set of gerbers) into a separate job. Then create a new panel (goto menu: File | New | Panel...)
1. Use Panel Wizard, and check the options page: "Add Scoring Lines".
2. Insert jobs into your new panel using Insert Jobs (panel menu: Tools | Insert Jobs... or Tools | Merge Job Table...), then add score lines using Add Score Lines (panel menu: Tools | Add Score Lines...)
Note: You can also draw the score lines in yourself, by creating a new layer, then adding the lines which will be used as your score lines (go to menu: Add | Trace). Make sure you select a dcode that is around 10 mils wide, and keep a clearance of at least 50 mils from the board edge.