Gerber lines in ground plane

[Anonymous]

My manufacturer is asking me to remove those lines from the ground gerber layer

I've been searching information about this problem and I've found nothing, I don't know if it has a specific name or it isn't a real problem

It's a problem of the gerber file?

I'm using Eagle 8.3.2 and GERBER_RS274X as device output

The polygon properties:

polygon pour: solid

isolate: 0

rank: 6

Orphans: uncheck

Thermals: check

I've edited this last options, and none of them seems to solve the problem. I've also selected the polygon pour as hatch but instead of line I see dots

The cam file I'm usign to generate the gerber file is this

I'll really appreciate any help

[Anonymous]

no one can help me?

[C.Nicks]

In all my years working with Eagle, I've never seen this before.

Would it be possible to post at least one gerber file that shows this?

[Anonymous]

It is happen me with all the gerber files, for example this file from sparkfun: https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/5/0/7/esp32-thing-v10.zip

I open it, and then use this cam file to generate the gerber files: http://docs.oshpark.com/resources/OSHPark-2layer-Eagle7.2.cam (I've use others too). In the case of that file, I just generate the files, I don't edit anything. In the cam panel I only change the destination and press the "Process Job" button

I finally use gerbv to visualize the file: http://gerbv.sourceforge.net/

At the beginning I thought it was a problem of the viewer software, but now my pcb manufacturer is asking me to fix that problem so I asume it's not that.

[C.Nicks]

Sounds like a very strange issue. Please upload one of those gerbers so I can compare it to the output from my machine.

[Anonymous]

I've attached a top gerber layer, from the same design I uploaded before

[rachaelATWH4]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've attached a top gerber layer, from the same design I uploaded before

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I can see the issue when I load this in gerbv but currently I can't replicate this with the CAM processor in v8.3.2 and have never seen this before either.

The way EAGLE draws the ground plane is with rasterising it with wires of the width specified in the polygon polygon properties. The only thing I can think is there is some weird rounding error causing a gap to appear between the lines used to create the fill. Can you tell us exactly what line width is set for your polygon please? It might be that changing this width setting slightly will cause the issue to go away.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[RichardHammerl]

Hi guillermoepd,

I am sure that this is a problem of the Gerber viewer and I assume that it is a problem of the currently chosen zoom factor. I heard similar requests of users from time to time all over the years and it always turned out not to be an EAGLE polygon issue. 

Regards,

[Anonymous]

At this moment the polygon width is 0.5, I've incremented thinking the same, I started with 0.3

@RichardHammerlI've also check in one more viewer and I had the same result. The person who I talked to, told me she had others gerber files with ground planes and they don't show the gaps. If that is a problem of the viewer I need to prove that to her

[rachaelATWH4]

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@Anonymous wrote:

At this moment the polygon width is 0.5, I've incremented thinking the same, I started with 0.3

@RichardHammerlI've also check in one more viewer and I had the same result. The person who I talked to, told me she had others gerber files with ground planes and they don't show the gaps. If that is a problem of the viewer I need to prove that to her

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Ok, try loading the gerb274x.cam from the EAGLE v8.3.2 cam folder and regenerate the layer with the polygon and try that in the gerber viewer.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[Anonymous]

Same results using gerb274x.cam.

I've just downloaded a gerber file from github and I have open it in the viewer software, it doesn't show any gaps, so I may say it's an eagle problem not the viewer.

[C.Nicks]

Looks fine in Viewmate. I do still think the CAM processor should be updated to use the gerber extended format polygon features. They were added in 1991 to allow defining polygon area fills without the need for "painting".

[Anonymous]

Thanks @C.Nicks I've downloaded Viewmate, I can see it hasn't the gaps.

The question now is why there are some files showing the gaps and others don't (in gerbv). I'll contact my manufacturer to ask what is the software they are using to see the gerber files

[Anonymous]

I've just talked with them and they are visualizing the gerbers with Altum and kicad and both software has the same problem. I've tried creating a new board with two components and a few wires, with a ground plane and I get the same results.

does anyone can export this eagle project?

https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/5/0/7/esp32-thing-v10.zip I want to see if it's only my machine.

The problem is easy to check with: http://gerbv.geda-project.org/

[rachaelATWH4]

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@Anonymous wrote:

I've just talked with them and they are visualizing the gerbers with Altum and kicad and both software has the same problem. I've tried creating a new board with two components and a few wires, with a ground plane and I get the same results.

does anyone can export this eagle project?

https://cdn.sparkfun.com/assets/learn_tutorials/5/0/7/esp32-thing-v10.zip I want to see if it's only my machine.

The problem is easy to check with: http://gerbv.geda-project.org/

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To add to the confusion, if I run the CAM processor and create the gerbers from this project and view it in gerbview (from KiCAD) I see the lines, if I view it in gerbv then it's perfect with no issues. Yet the gerber layer you uploaded earlier showed the lines for me in gerbv....

[Anonymous]

I've tested with Ealge 6.6.0 and I get the same results, so I don't know what to think and how to solve this problem. I'm trying to avoid using another software because it will took me some days to make the libraries and the board again, but I'm don't see other solution.

[Anonymous]

After all this days searching for a solution, I finally did it. I've imported my project in KiCAD, without much effort I've exported the gerbers files from there. So I can say that the problem was eagle.

Thanks the users who tried to help me. I started this topic because I thought the people from Autodesk will be interested in help me, but I was wrong, after this experience I I'll just switch to another software.

[rachaelATWH4]

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@Anonymous wrote:

After all this days searching for a solution, I finally did it. I've imported my project in KiCAD, without much effort I've exported the gerbers files from there. So I can say that the problem was eagle.

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I'm glad to hear you've managed to find a solution to get you working Gerber files, even if it did require exporting to another tool. I'm perplexed as to what is causing the issue outputting from EAGLE for your project though, especially as I can recreate the issue with your board but oddly it varies between viewer. I've never ever had this issue with any board I have created, so I can only think there must be a setting somewhere which has been tweaked to some value which is causing this.

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@Anonymous wrote:

Thanks the users who tried to help me. I started this topic because I thought the people from Autodesk will be interested in help me, but I was wrong, after this experience I I'll just switch to another software.

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To be fair to the support guys from Autodesk, 2/3 of the support team were out for a chunk of last week including when you posted this up because they are Florida based and needed to avoid hurricane Irma, so that probably didn't help in the response time. FWIW, the support team for Autodesk EAGLE are pretty much the best I have dealt with from any company, they actually really do care and will do everything they can to find solutions for people, so I think any delay on helping you find a solution is just unfortunate timing in this instance. I'm sure they will want to try help resolve this.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[rachaelATWH4]

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@C.Nicks wrote:

I do still think the CAM processor should be updated to use the gerber extended format polygon features. They were added in 1991 to allow defining polygon area fills without the need for "painting".

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I completely agree with this. In 2017 there is no need to be still rasterising polygons in EAGLE, both in the main viewer and in the CAM output. Sorting things like this should be reasonably high up the priority list even though it's not a hugely visible thing in terms of a feature adding functionality, as it'll make the outputs better and will mean drawing polygon features on a board can have lots of detail as they won't be limited by line width.

Best Regards,

Rachael

[jorge_garcia]

Hi Guys,

We are working on finally supporting non-raster polygon fills. This is very much coming in the near term.

I know we will all be happy to have it.

Thanks Rachael and Cameron for picking up our slack while we dealt with Hurricane Irma.

@Anonymous This type of error could have been caused by a defective eagle.def file, I have no idea how that could have happened in your case but that is the only thing I can think of that hasn't been mentioned so far in this thread.

If you ever decide to try EAGLE again, we'll be here to help and as you have observed our community will also be here to help.

Best Regards,