Tutorial - Exporting a design from CircuitMaker 2 to JLCPCB
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 8 сен 2024
- In this video, I use the design I made in the CircuitMaker 2 tutorial to show you how to export a design and get it built from JLCPCB. Here's a link if you want to see that tutorial: • Start to Finish Board ...
If you want to use their how-to guide, here's a link: support.jlcpcb...
Thank you sir! Your videos have made learning CircuitMaker so much easier - I was struggling until I found your tutorials - I really do appreciate all the effort you have put into your videos.
@@GrahamLaming Glad to hear this helped you out!
Cool beans! Time to make some Gerber files!
Hey, thank you so much, that was fast :) Enjoy the holidays!
No problem - I'm happy to help.
The old version used to do a "Save As" locally with the export zip file, took a tutorial to find that they had moved the export to the web! 😄
Yes, this is my first experience with CircuitMaker. I too could not figure out where my design was stored BEFORE I generated Gerber files. I tried to find an option to store my project on my PC's C drive with my other designs, but nope!
It looks like Altium is pushing their Server (Cloud) Altium 360. Apparently your design MUST be on their Cloud, and since the tool is free, you really can't "say" much about that. But at least you can download ALL the "Output" files to a zip and keep that on your PC. I click ALL the outputs (not just Gerber and NC Files) so I get as much of the design as I can on my PC. I had sent that "Whole Shebang" zip to JLCPCB and they rejected it for "Too many files they don't use". So after I download that full up zip file, I unzip it all on my PC, then rezip just the Gerber and NC Files that I upload to JLCPCB. It's an extra step but I can keep copies of each FULL release on my PC.
So Altium kind of "owns our designs" as they can ONLY be worked from their Cloud. There are up and down sides of a Cloud based design:
Up Sides:
1. You never run out of disk (cloud) space.
2. Every release is versioned so you could go back to older revisions for reference and to grab code snippets.
3. You can't seem to delete versions, so you can't lose data. It is a true revision control archive system.
4. You can share your design with your team (Read/Modify/Write) or with other collaborators around the world (Read Only).
Down Sides:
1. With a so called "Free" tool, they will eventually start charging us for disk (cloud) space.
2. You can't seem to delete versions: You can't get rid of interim releases, clean up stuff that is no longer of any use, and you just use more and more disk space.
3. Your designs are mixed in on a server (cloud) with potentially millions of other good users (and malignant users), if a hacker can get into the cloud, they can steal EVERYONE'S data.
I have never used a cloud for ANY data storage, but CircuitMaker is free, and it meets my home budget.
I've been searching for exactly this information - it doesn't seem very easy to find out exactly where the files are stored or how you back them up - my view is if you only have one copy of a file, then you don't have any copies and the more time you spent making your file, the likelier you are to lose it.
@@BlackheathTownhouse I think if you can at least save ALL the output data files (reports, Gerbers, drills, drawing, and more) - that is you check all output options - then you at least have an "indirect" copy of your design on your PC when you release the data to the server and download the zip file. Technically, all those files could be used to recreate your source design and options, but I don't think CircuitMaker can re-create from them... maybe importing may work but I have not explored importing yet.
The whole idea with a free tool like CircuitMaker is to "wet your whisle" and get you used to their Integrated Design Environment (IDE) in hopes you upgrade to a full-up IDE that you pay for - which I am sure you can store files wherever you desire.
Altium's tools are not very expensive compared to high end professional CAD/CAM tools, but they get the job done and rival those pro tools that can cost you thousands of dollars a seat per year. With those tools, you get full support and training.
Great video. Too bad I found it after the fact [smile].
At 2:28 make sure you draw your board outline on the Outline Layer on your PCB. I changed my PCB size to the size I desired, I thought that was all I needed. It created a Gerber Outline file but there was (in retrospect) no actual outline in it - just some "skeleton" data. So don't forget to actually draw your Outline on the Outline Layer before generating your Gerber files. You would think that CircuitMaker would warn you about this in the DRC, but I saw no option for it. JLCPCB rejected my design. All they said was "No Outline in Gerber files". So just seeing an Outline file in your Gerber data is not good enough, you MUST draw the Outline Layer.
At 3:02 DO NOT check any of the 3 boxes in the right side window! The word "Add" is misleading, it should say "Merge" because that what they do, they merge those layers into the Top Copper Layer. I had a transistor that used the 3D footprint, it had a Overlay (Silkscreen Markings) and a Courtyard (Pick and Place Tool Keepout) artwork with it. Because I checked those boxes, the Gerber Top Copper layer added (MERGED) those lines into the copper and shorted out the transistor pins. Since this is after DRC, there is no way to check for it and CircuitMaker gives you NO WARNINGS that you just put short-circuits on your board. Why would CircuitMaker have these seemingly useless and detrimental options. JLCPCB rejected my design the 2nd time for "Short-circits". But DRC passed with no warnings and no errors and I set up the rules per JLCPCB's website. It took a few emails back and forth before they sent me a screen shot of the offending layer, and indeed you can see how the transistor Overlay and Courtyard lines were put into the copper and shorted out the pins. It was hard to see because they colored the layer dark blue on a black background and the shorts were very thin. It took me a while to figure out NOT to check those 3 options. I read all sorts of documentation, forums, and videos... all of them glossed right over this part of the "secret sauce".
LESSON LEARNED:
View your Gerber files (especially on your first design like this was for me) to verify they have the correct info.
Altium has an on-line Gerber Viewer. It very easy to use, you upload your Gerber zip file and it displays the layers. Too bad it wasn't integrated in CircuitMaker. If it had been, I would have found these errors before sending my design Gerber files out to JLCPCB. I was relying on CircuitMaker to tell me if there was a problem with the Gerber files, but no, it can really screw up the files if you click just one wrong option, or miss just one option.
At 5:17 the reason you get an error if you try to download the entire package (Full Release) is because the [VARIANT] part of the release will be empty if you generate only Gerber and NC Drill info. Because JLCPCB wants only these two directories (folders), we generate only those two, and thus the [VARIANTS] directory is empty. If Altium could put a dummy file by default in that [VARIANT] directory, then downloading the entire package would not fail.
So you have to download ONLY the directory you show in the video as it contains only the Gerber and NC Drill directories in it.
What I do is:
I generate EVERTHING (click all the boxes) in CircuitMaker (allthough I configure only Gerber and NC Drill for JLCPCB). Then I can download the entire package, because of this, there will be files in the [VARIANT] part. I do this to save a copy of ALL the design information I can on my PC since CircuitMaker keeps the design on their cloud server and downloading is the only way to get to it. So I keep a backup copy of the design (documentation) on my PC.
Then I copy only the Gerber and NC Drill files to another area on my PC and zip those two together and this is what I upload to JLCPCB.
Do you know how I can set up the software so I can print a image of the circuit board to size? I would like to make the PCB at home instead of sending it out to a board house.
Go to the Outputs tab at the top, select "Printing" and then "Mask Set." This should bring up a print preview that is scaled totally wrong, but has your masks. Next, right click on the pages and select "Page Setup..." and change Scale Mode to "Scaled Print" with the Scale as 1.00. Hope this helps.
So how long exactly did it take for you? Mine seems to just freeze.
It usually takes about a minute for me. I believe I have also had it get stuck and I had to try again - I think it has to do with the program contacting their servers.
Mine froze the first time too. I agree, CircuitMaker is tightly coupled to the web for most of its functions - especially at launch. I have a tool I made, called "Process Killer". It has a list of all PC processes that I deem are wasting CPU time and memory. At the click of a button it kills every instance (some are multiple) of every process in my list. It takes a couple of minutes to run after every login, but it speeds up my Windows 10 PC which is a dog compared to my Windiws 7 PC - which CircuitMaker crashes on due to lack of memory (for some resson). Since killing "superfluous" processes, CircuitMaker no longer hangs during Output generation and is not as sluggish starting up as well.