Pads Dxf

[mary meullion]

I was wondering how does pads dxf import and export function work with autocad? Is it worth adding this option on?

Do you have any problems or are there ways you need to setup thing to make it work better together?

[Tom]

Mary,

PowerPCB DXF In/Out works rather poorly. You cannot control the amount of data when Exporting. PowerPCB seems to add a ton of miscellaneous stuff that you don't need. This makes the DXF file rather big. I wish there was a way that you could Export the exact data that you want, Layers & Elements.

If you buy the DXF option, it's well worth the money to also purchase Artwork Conversions BFlat program that removes all the extraneous data that PowerPCB produces and improves the DXF file.

Or you can produce "Pen Plot" files in PowerPCB and use Artwork Conversions "HP2DXF" program. That's what we use because we can output the exact graphical data that we want in a HPGL Pen Plot file and then convert it. There is a free 30 day trial on the program.

http://www.artwork.com/acad/index.htm

The PowerPCB Import function works great.

[randychase]

Also.... we are creating a new program that will be much better than what you have seen with the supplied PowerPCB translator. It's early, our software guys say give us a couple more months, but we have a lot of it done now and it is looking good.

I don't want to say too much, but if you can wait a month or two, please consider doing so and look here for a product announcement. As a user, I am excited about this product.

[Lameris]

Another option is to buy ANY version of CAM350 (even the cheap Viewer) and add the DXF option.

Then you can "CAM" the data you want in your DXF file.

Gary Lameris