Board Cutouts Increase PCB Dimensions?

Making PCB Layouts, Manual routing, Auto-routing, Copper pouring, Updating from Schematic, Manufacturing Output
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Dave8266
Posts: 49
Joined: 20 Mar 2020, 16:57

Board Cutouts Increase PCB Dimensions?

#1 Post by Dave8266 » 05 May 2021, 11:39

Here's an interesting one. I've recently discovered that board cutouts, despite by definition removing material, actually count toward the board dimensions for pricing purposes for some PCB manufacturers.

For example, take this oddball PCB shape I threw together- I'm using this example because It's trivial to make something complex like this using board cutouts (takes just a few minutes), but would be brutal to create by manually editing the points for the board outline.
Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.23.45 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.23.45 PM.png (51.5 KiB) Viewed 163 times

The DipTrace 3D preview shows the board as expected:
Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.24.21 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.24.21 PM.png (43.13 KiB) Viewed 163 times

However, throw it into one of the websites for ordering, and we find that costs are computed based on the bounding box enclosing all of the operations. In this case, despite the fact that it would be manufactured fine, it more than doubled the cost of the board.
Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.25.25 PM.png
Screen Shot 2021-05-05 at 5.25.25 PM.png (82.72 KiB) Viewed 163 times

Does anyone have a solution to this? Is there an option in DipTrace to "clip" the PCB subtraction operations to the board outline?

Tomg
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Posts: 2028
Joined: 20 Jun 2015, 07:39

Re: Board Cutouts Increase PCB Dimensions?

#2 Post by Tomg » 05 May 2021, 13:29

Not that I am aware of. The only thing that comes to mind would be to export the Board Outline layer as a DXF file (pay attention to the Units setting), import the new DXF file into a competent 2D CAD program, use the trim tool to cut off the excess, export the results as a DXF file and import the modified DXF file back into the Board Outline layer.
Tom

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