X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-user-bounces using -f X-Recipient: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Date: Tue, 10 Jul 2012 06:22:22 -0700 From: Colin D Bennett To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Subject: Re: [geda-user] gerber export - outline layer Message-ID: <20120710062222.34c58d67@svelte> In-Reply-To: References: X-Mailer: Claws Mail 3.8.0 (GTK+ 2.24.10; x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-AntiAbuse: This header was added to track abuse, please include it with any abuse report X-AntiAbuse: Primary Hostname - gator297.hostgator.com X-AntiAbuse: Original Domain - delorie.com X-AntiAbuse: Originator/Caller UID/GID - [47 12] / [47 12] X-AntiAbuse: Sender Address Domain - gibibit.com X-BWhitelist: no X-Source: X-Source-Args: X-Source-Dir: X-Source-Sender: (svelte) [67.160.113.82]:54372 X-Source-Auth: colin AT gibibit DOT com X-Email-Count: 2 X-Source-Cap: c2t5bGVuO3NreWxlbjtnYXRvcjI5Ny5ob3N0Z2F0b3IuY29t Reply-To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com Errors-To: nobody AT delorie DOT com X-Mailing-List: geda-user AT delorie DOT com X-Unsubscribes-To: listserv AT delorie DOT com Precedence: bulk On Sun, 8 Jul 2012 00:19:54 -0400 Nathan Stewart wrote: > After beating my head against the wall trying to get my outline to > work, I discovered that the gerber export doesn't actually export > the outline layer as such unless it is in a group by itself. > > else if (nlayers == 1 > 459 && (strcmp (PCB->Data->Layer[idx].Name, > "route") == 0 || 460 strcmp > (PCB->Data->Layer[idx].Name, "outline") == 0)) 461 { > 462 suff = "oln"; > 463 } > > It looks quite on purpose, but doesn't seem to be documented > anywhere. Is this correct behavior? Again we see that the pcb terminology of "layer groups" containing one or more "layers" is biting someone. Unless you have a good reason to do otherwise, always put exactly one layer in each layer group. Let's all pretend that these concepts are called "layers" and "sublayers" to make it clear which is the fundamental one. It has been proposed that we call them "board layers" and "drawing layers" or something like that, but I'm not really satisfied with that since it should be completely clear from the name which is the top-level entity. Actually if we could use a word other than "layer" for these sublayers it would be best. I know that graphics and drawing programs use "layer" in general but it causes confusion since PCBs already use this term in a very specific way. What other word could replace "layer"? Anyway, I've found that the current "sublayers" (simply "layers" in current pcb terminology) are seldom useful, since you can't show or hide specific layers in a layer group, and there are no useful per-layer properties (except color) that can be set. I thought it would be useful to help separate the ground flood polygons on the bottom of a 2-layer board from the ground traces, but the only real benefit is that you can assign a different display color to it. Regards, Colin