Electronic – Print PCB on copper using Altium

altiumgerberpcbpcb-fabrication

I've been trying to print and make my own circuit using Altium (print it on film paper, iron it on copper-coated plastic and then dip it in Ferric Chloride etc.), using Gerber files. Only problem is, Gerber files don't show the holes (and obviously I can't print the drill file) and I can't print the PCB directly since that I can't separate the layers while printing the PCB. Any idea on how to print holes normally?

I've been looking for an answer for a long time but couldn't find anything that worked for me (looked mostly at this).

Best Answer

So you have got a drill file, in txt format. You can drag this txt and drop into the Altium Designer. You will get the following dialog:

enter image description here

Click OK and your drill file will be loaded like this:

enter image description here

Now, you can select \$ \textbf{File} \longrightarrow \textbf{Print}\$, set Print Scalling to \$ \textbf{User Scale = 1.0}\$. The page orientation can be set under the Printer Setup option.

enter image description here

As a demonstration I have just printed it as a PDF document, here is the output on an A4 sheet:

enter image description here

  • the board dimensions: 67.6mm x 149.25mm
  • the A4 sheet dimensions: 210mm x 297mm

According to this: \$ \frac{297mm}{149.25mm} = 1.9899 \$, there must be enough space along the height of the page for almost two printing.
It can be seen on the picture above that this condition is fulfilled(, if we place the printing at the edge of the sheet).

Consider it as a workaround, there could be much more sophisticated solutions.

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