Old pcb > new art?

[Mike Rocket J Squirrel]

Mike Elliott wrote:

I have a friend who services old equipment from a manufacturer who is
out of business. He is generally able to effect repairs and get the
customers up and running again, but on occasion he finds a circuit board
so badly damaged or mistreated that he'd rather start with a nice fresh
new one. Of course the circuit board artwork is long gone. The boards
are 70's era, single-sided designs with big through-hole components and
fat traces (30mil max, is my guess). Simple stuff, really.

He asks me, how can he get new boards made? And I had to tell him that I
reckon a fellow could find a clean one, and scan it, use it as the basis
for a new design. But that's as far as my guesses take me. He needs a
small-budget, cheap and cheerful low-tech solution. Ideas?

He's located in Oklahoma, if anyone nearby can do this kind of work.

Solved it. Just got off the phone with my friendly Altium tech guy and
he suggested simply converting the pdf of the board art into a black and
white bitmap, then using the logo importer script to bring it into a new
pc board on a mechanical layer. Place tracks and pads over the placed
art, and Bob's your uncle.

Functionally the same as suggested we do in PCB, w/o the need to change
operating systems. However, it does fall into my darn lap to do the work
for the guy because he certainly isn't going to buy and learn Altium
Designer for this one board.

-- mike elliott

 

[DJ Delorie]

Mike Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@GOLLYgmail.com> writes:

Functionally the same as suggested we do in PCB, w/o the need to
change operating systems.

PCB runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix. What operating system would you
have to switch from? OS/2?

 

[JeffM]

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

Just got off the phone with my friendly Altium tech guy and he suggested
. . . using the logo importer script to bring it into a new pc board
on a mechanical layer.
Place tracks and pads over the placed art, and Bob's your uncle.
-- mike elliott

You'd think this would be better publicized
by the ECAD vendors whose wares can do it.
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.basics/browse_frm/thread/73424b5d8a61d05b/48832626729b98c5?q=*-applications-transparent+put-TraxMaker-in-front-*-*+set-TraxMaker's-opacity-to-around-145+zzz+easy-to-see-in-photoshop+They-are-highlighted-when-traced

 

[Christopher Ott]

Logo importer script? Is this new since Protel99SE? I've wanted to do this
very thing on several occasions, and always had to regenerate the logo
freehand...

Chris


"Mike Rocket J Squirrel" <j.michael.elliott@GOLLYgmail.com> wrote in message
news:esednUrJINuZcrfYnZ2dnUVZ_qOdnZ2d@adelphia.com...

Mike Elliott wrote:
I have a friend who services old equipment from a manufacturer who is out
of business. He is generally able to effect repairs and get the customers
up and running again, but on occasion he finds a circuit board so badly
damaged or mistreated that he'd rather start with a nice fresh new one.
Of course the circuit board artwork is long gone. The boards are 70's
era, single-sided designs with big through-hole components and fat traces
(30mil max, is my guess). Simple stuff, really.

He asks me, how can he get new boards made? And I had to tell him that I
reckon a fellow could find a clean one, and scan it, use it as the basis
for a new design. But that's as far as my guesses take me. He needs a
small-budget, cheap and cheerful low-tech solution. Ideas?

He's located in Oklahoma, if anyone nearby can do this kind of work.

Solved it. Just got off the phone with my friendly Altium tech guy and he
suggested simply converting the pdf of the board art into a black and
white bitmap, then using the logo importer script to bring it into a new
pc board on a mechanical layer. Place tracks and pads over the placed art,
and Bob's your uncle.

Functionally the same as suggested we do in PCB, w/o the need to change
operating systems. However, it does fall into my darn lap to do the work
for the guy because he certainly isn't going to buy and learn Altium
Designer for this one board.

-- mike elliott

 

[Mike Rocket J Squirrel]

DJ Delorie wrote:

Mike Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@GOLLYgmail.com> writes:
Functionally the same as suggested we do in PCB, w/o the need to
change operating systems.

PCB runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix. What operating system would you
have to switch from? OS/2?

Did I mis-read the earliest responses to my OP? The thread took an
immediate turn to gEDA / Knoppix & dual-booting to Linux. It was all
geek-speak to me, gave me the distinct impression that PCB wasn't a
Windows app and needed some fancy OS jiggery-pokery for my friend with
the pcb scan, a CPA with less knowledge of OS's than I (if that is
possible), to run. If I misunderstood all that (which I apparently did,
not surprising since I know nothing about playing with OS's) then I
apologize!

-- mike elliott

 

[Mike Rocket J Squirrel]

JeffM wrote:

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
Just got off the phone with my friendly Altium tech guy and he suggested
. . . using the logo importer script to bring it into a new pc board
on a mechanical layer.
Place tracks and pads over the placed art, and Bob's your uncle.
-- mike elliott

You'd think this would be better publicized
by the ECAD vendors whose wares can do it.
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.basics/browse_frm/thread/73424b5d8a61d05b/48832626729b98c5?q=*-applications-transparent+put-TraxMaker-in-front-*-*+set-TraxMaker's-opacity-to-around-145+zzz+easy-to-see-in-photoshop+They-are-highlighted-when-traced

Maybe they consider it to be a trivial capability, primarily suited to
importing a company's logo. I bet that it's a rare day when someone
needs to trace over an old board.

-- mike elliott

 

[Mike Rocket J Squirrel]

Christopher Ott wrote:

Logo importer script? Is this new since Protel99SE? I've wanted to do this
very thing on several occasions, and always had to regenerate the logo
freehand...

Chris

I dunno when it was added - I jumped from Protel 3.x to AD6.3. In AD one
can look under File > Import, and they provide a Logo Creator script in
their script examples. Also see
http://www.proteluser.com/showthread.php?t=3160

You can also go register at altium.com to join the user forum. Lot of 99
questions there.

-- mike elliott

 

[Chuck Harris]

Though I don't use MS for anything at all, as I understand it, gEDA
can be built on windows using an interface layer. As far as the
user/installer is concerned, it just works.

-Chuck Harris

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

DJ Delorie wrote:
Mike Rocket J Squirrel <j.michael.elliott@GOLLYgmail.com> writes:
Functionally the same as suggested we do in PCB, w/o the need to
change operating systems.

PCB runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix. What operating system would you
have to switch from? OS/2?

Did I mis-read the earliest responses to my OP? The thread took an
immediate turn to gEDA / Knoppix & dual-booting to Linux. It was all
geek-speak to me, gave me the distinct impression that PCB wasn't a
Windows app and needed some fancy OS jiggery-pokery for my friend with
the pcb scan, a CPA with less knowledge of OS's than I (if that is
possible), to run. If I misunderstood all that (which I apparently did,
not surprising since I know nothing about playing with OS's) then I
apologize!

-- mike elliott

 

[JeffM]

DJ Delorie wrote:

PCB runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix.
What operating system would you have to switch from? OS/2?

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
Did I mis-read the earliest responses to my OP?
-- mike elliott

Not so much "mis" as "miss".

The thread took an immediate turn to gEDA / Knoppix
& dual-booting to Linux.

Yup. A *solution* was offered.

It was all geek-speak to me,
gave me the distinct impression that PCB wasn't a Windows app

Here's where "miss" comes in:

http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.cad/browse_frm/thread/3b6f24029a8b34cf/609099d973d4bc41?q=Install-PCB-under-Windows+*-*-*-progress-since-then
DJ pointed out that getting gEDA onto a Windoze box
is now even easier than my ancient link indicates
(though he was chincy with the details).

"Open Source Software 101: The Real Beauty of the Concept"
http://www.google.com/search?q=open-source+can-be-compiled-for-any+any-platform+OR+any-*-platform+OR+any-operating+OR+any-*-operating+-any-Unix&num=100

"Open Source Software 201: Making Unix Apps Work Under Windoze"
http://www.google.com/search?q=compile+OR+compiled+MinGW+Cygwin+Unix-environment&num=100

and needed some fancy OS jiggery-pokery for my friend
[...]a CPA with less knowledge of OS's than I

Stuart offered the coolest solution EVER

for how a Windoze user can get gEDA working on his box
WITHOUT **INSTALLING** A SINGLE THING.
http://groups.google.com/group/sci.electronics.cad/browse_frm/thread/3b6f24029a8b34cf/5ef0c2c6f82294d6?q=Quantian+dirk.eddelbuettel+with-gEDA+zz-zz+Knoppix-like.CD

If you are bandwidth-challenged,
these folks will ship you a disk for $2:
http://www.google.com/search?q=site:frozentech.com+Quantian&filter=0&num=100

It was all geek-speak to me,

It appears you have been in hibernation for several years

and have missed one of the coolest things to come down the pike:
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:Knoppix
http://www.google.com/search?q=define:live+CD

Another example of such a bootable CD
(which allows Linux to save Windoze users' butts):
Emergency Boot CD
http://www.google.com/search?q=EBCD+Windows+Problems&num=100
It gets around the broken-by-design nature of NTFS
--as supplied by M$ (think: Klein flask).
http://66.102.9.104/images?q=Klein-bottle

 

[DJ Delorie]

"JeffM" <jeffm_@email.com> writes:

DJ pointed out that getting gEDA onto a Windoze box is now even
easier than my ancient link indicates (though he was chincy with the
details).

Because I've never done it myself. Dan has, and he maintains the
build script for Windows.

Same for OS/X. I've gotten email saying it "just works" but I've
never done it myself.

 

[Joel Kolstad]

"Mike Rocket J Squirrel" <j.michael.elliott@GOLLYgmail.com> wrote in message
news:d5CdnRIDvdxwALbYnZ2dnUVZ_oydnZ2d@adelphia.com...

Maybe they consider it to be a trivial capability, primarily suited to
importing a company's logo.

Some video cards, e.g., those from nVidia, contain a feature in their driver
that will let you change the opacity of any window on a Windows 2000 or XP
box; I imagine there are standalone utilities to do this as well. (I mean...
we really are talking about a simple OS function call here to create the
opacity "feature" -- it's just a question of whether the application calls it
itself or some other program slightly hi-jacks the window to do it...)

I bet that it's a rare day when someone needs to trace over an old board.

Agreed.

 

[Mike Elliott]

On 10/10/2006 9:42 AM JeffM wrote:

DJ Delorie wrote:
PCB runs on Windows, Mac, and Unix.
What operating system would you have to switch from? OS/2?

Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
Did I mis-read the earliest responses to my OP?
-- mike elliott

Not so much "mis" as "miss".

Hey. You callin' me a /sissy/?

-- mike elliott