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From: arpajian@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Dean Arpajian)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.atari.st,sci.electronics
Subject: Re: PCB designers
Keywords: PCB, Atari, Sun
Message-ID: <1991Mar4.181649.10169@rodan.acs.syr.edu>
Date: 4 Mar 91 18:16:49 GMT
References: <2014@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk>
Organization: Institute for Sensory Research
Lines: 46

In article <2014@Terra.cc.brunel.ac.uk> ee87kjh@cc.brunel.ac.uk (H J Harris) writes:
>Does anyone know of any decent (preferably public domain !) packages
>for either a 1040ST or Sun workstation that I can use to produce PCBs
>from circuit diagrams ? i.e. do most of the placement & routing, and
>then produce a printout which can be used to make the board. My 
>printer options are either a Star LC-10 or Apple LaserWriterII (post-
>script).
>
>Kevin Harris.

You may find that that you will have two problems:

1: Any "decent" PCB software that will do autorouting may be out of your
   price range (i.e. >$800 US) and that any that do autorouting are good
   for only LOW speed LOW impedance digital work... I wouldn't trust any
   autorouting prog for analog and/or wide bandwidth boards...

2: If you wish to make your boards "in house" or have a firm manufacture
   your boards, you will find that your artwork will not be adequate:

        either send your file off to a place that can make GERBER
        photo-plots OR capture your postscript output and take it
        to some place that has linotype (preferably a linotronic
        300 or better)...

   If you try to use the artwork from a laserwriter you will find two
   fun flaws:

        1: there is enough error (x-y) on the laserwriter's output
	   (over a large area) to say that it isn't truly WYSIWYG.

	2: The ouput from a laserwriter is not very opaque at all!
	   It turns out to be fairly unreliable for any traces
	   smaller than 0.030". 

   And dot matrix? ya' gotta be kidding!

email me with any questions...

p.s. my disclamer doesn't apply here...These are the opinions/findings
     of both my boss and myself.
-- 
Dean Arpajian (aka--->  arpajian@rodan.acs.syr.edu)

std. disclaimer: if I expressed an opinion, remember this:
                 it's simply my opinion. period.