1. To fill any area Avoid an array of horizontal/vertical lines, either use
Draw the outline only (using lines, arcs, or 0-width polyline) which is filled during Gerber conversion.
or use a Soild Hatch (which automatically creates the outlines for you) .
2. In DXF/DWG create clearly defined PCB layers for specific purposes: Metal, Drill holes, Mask, Silkscreen, PCB outline (layer "brdout" is good). In this DWG all the entities are kinda merged into various layers without a specific purpose; so there will be additional editing required (which is what the board fab house wants to avoid).
ACE includes a built in editor which can perform edits before the final export. For intense gerber editing I would prefer to use our Gerber editing software called FAB 3000 to perform the conversion (instead of ACE -- the numerical subscription includes both ACE & FAB).
Here's the recommended following steps.
Import DXF/DWG into ACE 3000
Recreated Fill area and merge back to solder.
Recreate Gold fingers (there is a call out for 0.01 chamfer 45 degrees - but I do not see the chamfer in the DWG Pads - so ignored)
Create a drill holes from ID of donut shape pads.
A few other questions: Is Mask layer needed? Should Text remain on metal layer, or on a separate Silkscreen layer.
Note: As a general rule creating a DWG/DXG that was designed for gerber conversions (using our guideline) is the most efficient method (so editing is avoided) and the board fab house will accept. With a well designed DWG/DXF, converting to Gerber only takes 1 minute without any editing.
Simon Garrison
(screen capture of DXF pcb design in AutoCAD)
After looking at the DWG I can definitely see why the board fab house would have issues. The DWG is created to look good in AutoCAD, but not necessarily for conversion to Gerber files (this is very common). Here's our DXF/DWG design guidelines for performing conversions, https://www.numericalinnovations.com/pages/dxf-dwg-conversion-secrets-for-gerber-gds-ii-odb-etc
A few initial suggestions:
1. To fill any area Avoid an array of horizontal/vertical lines, either use
2. In DXF/DWG create clearly defined PCB layers for specific purposes: Metal, Drill holes, Mask, Silkscreen, PCB outline (layer "brdout" is good). In this DWG all the entities are kinda merged into various layers without a specific purpose; so there will be additional editing required (which is what the board fab house wants to avoid).
ACE includes a built in editor which can perform edits before the final export. For intense gerber editing I would prefer to use our Gerber editing software called FAB 3000 to perform the conversion (instead of ACE -- the numerical subscription includes both ACE & FAB).
Here's the recommended following steps.
A few other questions: Is Mask layer needed? Should Text remain on metal layer, or on a separate Silkscreen layer.
Note: As a general rule creating a DWG/DXG that was designed for gerber conversions (using our guideline) is the most efficient method (so editing is avoided) and the board fab house will accept. With a well designed DWG/DXF, converting to Gerber only takes 1 minute without any editing.