Multiple Circuits on one PCB - Milling

Making PCB Layouts, Manual routing, Auto-routing, Copper pouring, Updating from Schematic, Manufacturing Output
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unshaven
Posts: 31
Joined: 25 Dec 2012, 12:12

Multiple Circuits on one PCB - Milling

#1 Post by unshaven » 13 Jul 2017, 05:46

Hey there,

how would you go about putting a few different small circuits on one PCB?

What I did so far:
I opened a new layout project and copy & pasted 3 completed smaller PCB layouts into it, aligned them as I wanted, partially using "rotate as group" to put things together to get a good yield on the paid-for PCB space.

Assume I choose a layout of the "sub PCBs" on the big PCB such that it is not feasible to cut through straight, from edge to edge - so I would have to use the PCB service's milling option around the edges / between the sub-boards to divide the boards?

So... I remove the outlines of the sub-boards I copy & pasted earlier, put one board outline around it all.
And then to get the milling slits between sub-boards - what kind of objects would I place there in DipTrace?
And, I guess I'd have to leave the corners intact for the whole thing holding together during processing?

-- 14 Jul 2017, 21:20 --

Ok, looks like the copy & paste sub layouts onto a bigger PCB is not really the way to go:
as DipTrace PCB then renumbers all the components, which is obviously not what's needed.

Is there another way to do this?

KarstenCan
Posts: 5
Joined: 05 May 2017, 10:45

Re: Multiple Circuits on one PCB - Milling

#2 Post by KarstenCan » 31 Aug 2017, 08:03

unshaven wrote:Hey there,
-- 14 Jul 2017, 21:20 --

Ok, looks like the copy & paste sub layouts onto a bigger PCB is not really the way to go:
as DipTrace PCB then renumbers all the components, which is obviously not what's needed.

Is there another way to do this?
The DIPTrace software is new to me, but I have learned a lot making my first boards, and I like the software very much. I also had some problems, first I needed an arc in the board layout, then i read the manual and discovered that I just had to press the right button on my mouse to do that. The next thing I needed was copper pour, but here it could not do the arc, again the manual, OK just ask it to follow the board outline in a distance you define.
Now I also needed to put some boards on a panel to order prototype boards, I did the same thing as you did, then I saw your message and discovered that tmy components had been renumbered. Now I had figured out that it helps reading the manual, and herein the Tutorial about making panels, it says: " click "EDIT\Keep RefDes while Pasting". Problem solved :)

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