Drill file missing holes

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auto-mation-assist
Posts: 9
Joined: 31 Jan 2021, 17:25

Drill file missing holes

#1 Post by auto-mation-assist » 05 Apr 2021, 05:36

I got a board back that had all via's through drilled with no plating that were supposed to just go from top to the power layer 3 making the board useless. This made me look into the generated drill files and led me to believe that the drill files were not the cause of this problem. But I did notice a problem with the top to power layer drill file.

I manually counted 39 via's that connect power distribution from the top layer to the power layer. However the drill file only listed 36 holes to be drilled. Thinking that perhaps the three missing via holes may not have been designated as running from top layer to power layer I looked at each ones property by just the mouse pointer to get the X Y position to see if each was listed in the drill file via a search utility. I found one that was missing from the drill file and used its X Y position to search all four drill files but no match was found in any file. After this I unlocked the missing via that had no drill entry in the drill file and opened its properties, verified Blind/buried, top to power and exited out of via properties. Then I regenerated the drill files in the export procedure and now I got all 39 dill locations in instead of the 36. Thus I gained 3 holes to be drilled by unlocking one via, verifying its properties and locking the via again.

I don't know why these holes were missing but it seems to me that something may not be updating and overriding old stored data at times. DT v4.1.2.0

Suggestion:

I would be beneficial to add X Y location added in the via properties panel once a via is placed. This would make searching for this kind of problem easier instead of having to use the mouse pointer to obtain X Y data which only shows this for a few seconds. A via list by X-Y location for each drill file could also be nice.

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KevinA
Posts: 639
Joined: 18 Dec 2015, 08:35

Re: Drill file missing holes

#2 Post by KevinA » 05 Apr 2021, 10:55

The Deluxe version is worth the money. http://www.pentalogix.com/viewmate.php
Inner drill
Inner drill
innerDrill.jpg (109.84 KiB) Viewed 546 times
In PCB if I click on a via the top right properties panel shows it's X,Y

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3894
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Drill file missing holes

#3 Post by Alex » 06 Apr 2021, 01:54

auto-mation-assist wrote: 05 Apr 2021, 05:36 I got a board back that had all via's through drilled with no plating that were supposed to just go from top to the power layer 3 making the board useless. This made me look into the generated drill files and led me to believe that the drill files were not the cause of this problem. But I did notice a problem with the top to power layer drill file.

I manually counted 39 via's that connect power distribution from the top layer to the power layer. However the drill file only listed 36 holes to be drilled. Thinking that perhaps the three missing via holes may not have been designated as running from top layer to power layer I looked at each ones property by just the mouse pointer to get the X Y position to see if each was listed in the drill file via a search utility. I found one that was missing from the drill file and used its X Y position to search all four drill files but no match was found in any file. After this I unlocked the missing via that had no drill entry in the drill file and opened its properties, verified Blind/buried, top to power and exited out of via properties. Then I regenerated the drill files in the export procedure and now I got all 39 dill locations in instead of the 36. Thus I gained 3 holes to be drilled by unlocking one via, verifying its properties and locking the via again.

I don't know why these holes were missing but it seems to me that something may not be updating and overriding old stored data at times. DT v4.1.2.0

Suggestion:

I would be beneficial to add X Y location added in the via properties panel once a via is placed. This would make searching for this kind of problem easier instead of having to use the mouse pointer to obtain X Y data which only shows this for a few seconds. A via list by X-Y location for each drill file could also be nice.
Thank you for the report.
Could you please send DipTrace board file and exported drill files (where the number of blind holes differs from what you counted) for verification to DipTrace support.

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KevinA
Posts: 639
Joined: 18 Dec 2015, 08:35

Re: Drill file missing holes

#4 Post by KevinA » 06 Apr 2021, 03:01

FYI: @Alex
Import Geber in PCB does not support inner layers, it must be a top or bottom layer.

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3894
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Drill file missing holes

#5 Post by Alex » 07 Apr 2021, 02:18

KevinA wrote: 06 Apr 2021, 03:01 FYI: @Alex
Import Geber in PCB does not support inner layers, it must be a top or bottom layer.
You can import Gerber file on internal layer if you select import mode "Add". Of course, the board should have already internal layer.

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KevinA
Posts: 639
Joined: 18 Dec 2015, 08:35

Re: Drill file missing holes

#6 Post by KevinA » 11 Apr 2021, 08:38

With three drill files it doesn't want to work; Import only imports gerber then asks for 1 drill file. To add the other two files I had to import a layer since you can't tell it to import a drill file, since the system will not allow me to go forward with the import without adding a layer (convert to). I guess (after creating the inner lays) I could add everything but the mask layers and use them to load the two inner layer drill files.

Alex
Technical Support
Posts: 3894
Joined: 13 Jun 2010, 23:43

Re: Drill file missing holes

#7 Post by Alex » 12 Apr 2021, 20:27

Yes, you can attach one drill file when you import gerber file, it is not possible to attach few drill files at once. I think this is custom case (very rare) when through and blind/buried holes need to be imported together with gerber file.

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