DXP and dulplicate components

[JamesB]

Hi,

I've got a problem with DXP.

When viewing the gerbers, it appears that we have some components
duplicated outside of the board area, but only on certain layers -
specifically the solder and paste layers, but not on the normal top layer.

I've tried the old trick of selecting outside area and trying to delete
them but they won't show up at all in Protel. Using the inspector list,
I can't see them either and definately can't delete them.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

--
James

 

[JamesB]

Brad Velander wrote:
[cut..]

To try and just remove the problem, the selection trick that should work
is actually. Turn on all used layers. Select All, then Deselect Inside
mousing just around your board outline, then Shift-Delete. The details of
this operation are: This selects everything regardless of it's location.
Then you deselect anything within the board outline. Then delete the still
selected items.
The key operation is the Deselect anything bounded by the board outline.
If it is even a segment of a land pattern that was moved outside the board
outline, that item will not be deselected by bounding the board outline.
Then when you Shift Delete, you will remove that offending item with
remnants out in the extremes because it was not deselected by the bounding
box only around the PCB outline. If this seems to work then run the Update
PCB from your schematic again, it will probably add back components that you
did delete fixing the problem. Finally run your DRC to see that everything
is still as per the rules and connectivity.

By your original comments, the only way that soldermask portions of a
part land pattern can move away from the pads is when they are added into
the land pattern as a separate primitive. Otherwise most of the normal
soldermask detail is calculated from the pads. Since you say there are no
pads in that area, then the culprit(s) must be from land patterns that have
separate soldermask primitives (fills, traces, polygons on the soldermask
layers) within the land pattern. Does that help you zero in on the culrpit
parts?

Thanks Brad. I did your select trick which solvevd the problem. Funnily
enough, re-updating the PCB didn't cause any changes and the problem
hasn't come back.

Love to know why that happened, but I've given up trying to find logic
with DXP sometimes.

Thanks,

--
James

 

[Anton Erasmus]

On Wed, 30 Apr 2008 14:28:28 GMT, "TT_Man" <Someone@ntlworld.com>
wrote:

"JamesB" <usenet@mesb.co.uk> wrote in message news:fv9sv4$qoc$1@aioe.org...
Hi,

I've got a problem with DXP.

When viewing the gerbers, it appears that we have some components
duplicated outside of the board area, but only on certain layers -
specifically the solder and paste layers, but not on the normal top layer.

I've tried the old trick of selecting outside area and trying to delete
them but they won't show up at all in Protel. Using the inspector list, I
can't see them either and definately can't delete them.

Any ideas?

Thanks,

--
James

Typical..... how about turning all layers on and retrying? I've found
library errors that cause similar problems in the old 'Client' version and
the culprit was in an odd ball layer.

I have seen this sort of thing as well. Sometimes it is a very small
section of arc which has a big radius with the centre outside the
visible area. These arcs cannot be selected and deleted. I have
exported such files in ASCII format, and deleted the relevant ARC's
in a text editor.

Regards
Anton Erasmus