Drill files are corrupt.

[cadpro2k]

%
T1F95S300
X17500Y-4500ÿ
X-7500ÿY43000
X25000Y50500

X0Y77000

X6000Y141500

Look typical? No, the fab shop says these are unusable. Note the funny 'y' and the boxes at the ends of the lines? Where do they come from? We're using PADS PPCB 5.0.1 and running WinXP/2000 systems.

The problem doesn't seem to happen on all databases, just occuring randomly now. Ascii OUT/IN doesn't seem to help. Neither does redoing the CAM settings. Some databases are generating these bad files.

Ideas?

[Jesse]

What program are you using to read the file? Try using simple notepad instead of word etc... It should make a world of difference.

Jesse

[Skip Yutkus]

The boxes and the funny "y" represent control characters or characters that fall outside the normal ascii range - I think I saw a discussion of this problem on a forum, (this one?), definitely view the file with notepad and not wordpad or other prog, notepad won't replace the control characters with boxes, check what version Excellon output you are set for, there was a newer type version similar to rs274x that never caught on.

Skip