How to indicate a board cutout in Cadence Orcad Layout?

[news.ucdavis.edu]

Hi,

I made a board layout using the Orcad Layout in the Cadance Orcad Unison
Suite. I need a simple square cutout on the board. I read the manual and the
only place it talks about cutout, it says,

Close the Obstacles spreadsheet so that you can view
the board outline in the design window. If there are
"cutouts" in the board outline where no components
should be placed, you need to create zero-height
keepouts inside the cutouts, to ensure that no
components are placed in these areas.

So I made a zero-height keepout on the global area. I also added the text
"cut me out" on the square region. I sent the Gerber files for fabrication.
But... The board coming back has that region kept untouched. The text "cut
me out" is still there.

I wonder what I should do to have that square part really cut??

Thanks!

 

[Peter Bennett]

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:08:34 -0700, "news.ucdavis.edu"
<zhopan@ucdavis.edu> wrote:

Hi,

I made a board layout using the Orcad Layout in the Cadance Orcad Unison
Suite. I need a simple square cutout on the board. I read the manual and the
only place it talks about cutout, it says,
snip

So I made a zero-height keepout on the global area. I also added the text
"cut me out" on the square region. I sent the Gerber files for fabrication.
But... The board coming back has that region kept untouched. The text "cut
me out" is still there.

I wonder what I should do to have that square part really cut??

You have to talk to your board shop to see how they want the cutout
documented.

The Gerber files you send to the board shop won't show the keepout
area - that data is internal to your CAD program. There is not
standard "automatic" way to show cutouts in the Gerber files.

I would draw the cutout area on the top copper layer using thin
tracks, and place text inside that area saying "Cut Out" (als on the
top copper area. Also, in the readme file I send with the Gerbers, I
would clearly state that "The area marked on the top copper layer is
to be cut out", or words to that effect. Further, after sending the
job, I would phone the shop to discuss this cutout.


--
Peter Bennett VE7CEI
GPS and NMEA info and programs: http://vancouver-webpages.com/peter/index.html
Newsgroup new user info: http://vancouver-webpages.com/nnq

 

[Leon Heller]

Peter Bennett wrote:

On Thu, 16 Oct 2003 00:08:34 -0700, "news.ucdavis.edu"
zhopan@ucdavis.edu> wrote:


Hi,

I made a board layout using the Orcad Layout in the Cadance Orcad Unison
Suite. I need a simple square cutout on the board. I read the manual and the
only place it talks about cutout, it says,

snip

So I made a zero-height keepout on the global area. I also added the text
"cut me out" on the square region. I sent the Gerber files for fabrication.
But... The board coming back has that region kept untouched. The text "cut
me out" is still there.

I wonder what I should do to have that square part really cut??


You have to talk to your board shop to see how they want the cutout
documented.

The Gerber files you send to the board shop won't show the keepout
area - that data is internal to your CAD program. There is not
standard "automatic" way to show cutouts in the Gerber files.

I would draw the cutout area on the top copper layer using thin
tracks, and place text inside that area saying "Cut Out" (als on the
top copper area. Also, in the readme file I send with the Gerbers, I
would clearly state that "The area marked on the top copper layer is
to be cut out", or words to that effect. Further, after sending the
job, I would phone the shop to discuss this cutout.

Another way would be to export a DXF file (I can do this with Pulsonix)
and read it into Autocad or whatever, add the cutout and send the DXF
file with the Gerber files.

Leon