color scheme simplification

[Sorin Stefan]

Hi Tom,

I am looking at these color schemes for S/M Planes... I understand them but they look too unnecessary complicated.

Is there any general CCF for a 16-layer board, regardless the stack-up order (just 16 signal layers for example)?

I guess they would have been easier to handle if they were a color for each layer, no matter of what kind of layer is that: signal, gnd or pwr.

This color scheme would apply even for boards with different number of layers..

Let's say I have a 4-layer board: 1-blue, 2-magenta, 3-cyan, 4-red.

For a 6-layer board I bring in two new colors: 1-blue, 2-magenta, 3-cyan, 4-brown, 5-dark green, 6-red.... and so on

(There colors mentioned are just examples)

Also, maybe the layer names shouldn't show what layer is that (signal, gnd, pwr) just Inner Layer X and that's it. The type of layer is easy to get from the layout itself.

it's easy to convert one signal layer into a gnd or pwr SM plane.

this will give us less CCF files, less start-up files and less hassle when exchanging files with other colleagues

just a thought, now all of them are done and they look nice

[Tom]

Sorin,

What we tried to do was to make the Planes Dark Colors and the Trace Layers Light Colors. We figure to use these color setups for a while on several designs and get feedback from the public on exactly what changes they would like to implement.

We are now in the process of updating all the Start File CAM Print section to add all the colors so you can create colorful .PDF files of every layer.

We are also adding a Gerber File for the "Board Outline". This is required for ODB++ data, and CAM350 also uses "Board Outline" to run a series of checks.

We are also updating the circle C copyright to 2002.

We are continually improving all the products on pcbstandards. It never ends.

[Sorin Stefan]

Is there any general CCF for a 16-layer board, regardless the stack-up order (just 16 signal layers for example)?

I'd like to start with that one and remove layers (and their respective colors) for our boards...

Thanks,
--Sorin

[Tom]

Sorin,

There is no "General CCF" for any number of layers. Why don't you just pick the 16A.CCF and start there? Or use any of the existing 16 layer ones.

I'm attaching a 16 layer PCB file that we used for color experiments. It's a 16C layer plan.

[Sorin Stefan]

that is exactly what I did: I loaded start16A.pcb... how did you know? :)

I am going home..... Now!!! hu-huuuu!!

Bye,
--Sorin

[Sorin Stefan]

Hi Tom,

I noticed in the Color Scheme that all the layers associated with Top layer are colored in "red" colors and the ones associated with Bottom layer are in a blue nuance.... still, the Top layer is BLUE and the Bottom layer is RED.

is this a mistake in the Document?

PowerPCB comes with Red on top and Blue on bottom by default..

some of the start-up pcb files I tried from this site don't respect that document

thanks,
Sorin

[Tom]

Here is the last color scheme document.

Remember, this is only a preliminary specification and we are still experimenting with what colors are good for Planes, Trace Layers, Silkcreen, Keepouts, Copper, etc.

There are dominant colors and there are dominant elements. An example of this is the element "Pad" is dominant over the element "Traces". So no matter what color you assign a pad or a trace, the trace will always disappear when it enters the pad.

The same is true for colors. You never want to make your Top Copper darker than the Pads because the copper will cover and hide the pads.

We have run lots of experiments with every combination and we are still experimenting. Some people think that this is no big deal, but when you sit a stare at a design 60+ hours a week it becomes a big deal.

[Sorin Stefan]

thanks Tom,

so the doc. on the website it's obsolete...

one little sugestion: the numbers for each color in your document should be decreased by one.... in this way it's going to be easier to identify the color in the CCF file if opened as an ASCII file...

0 is black and 31 is pink



thanks,
Sorin