problems viewing excellon drill files with pentalogix viewmate

[Anonymous]

Anyone know why I see ?s over my drill holes when viewing the drill and route files after Eaglecad cam processing? Im using viewmate. Had to play around with the import options just to get them located properly. I think my only problem now is this question mark. Guessing there is missing data there. 

[matt.berggren]

Sounds like the tool codes either aren't in the file or arent loading properly.  It is working for me fine over here so I would suggest a few things...

1)  Try running the Excellon.cam file in the install rather than a custom file.  Also try this on one of the examples in the build (I used the TI Launchpad just to ensure it was something more interesting than say, the Hexapod).  See the settings in that CAM job file:

2)  Failing that, please open the generated Excellon file...the top of the file should look like you see below:

%

M48

M72

T01C0.01200

T02C0.03600

T03C0.04000

T04C0.11000

%

T01

X53629Y32100

X67129Y41600

X63129Y46600

X59129Y59200

X69129Y60100

X60329Y69600

X59929Y80200

...if it doesnt include the much-needed toolcode data (the lines beginning T0<n>C<m.n> are your tool codes and have the diameters of the tools needed by viewmate) then viewmate may still have the drill hit info seen later in the file and marked by X<m>Y<n> but not be able to assign specific tool codes to the hits.  This could result in your "?"'s which are essentially undefined tool codes in Viewmate.

2)  If the file looks ok, then please load the file in Viewmate and then go to Setup -> Toolcode...  If the first few "T" numbers are empty, then the tool info is not being imported.  Please send over the detail on what version of Viewmate you're using.  I'm using whatever the latest is on their website (updated just to be safe).

3)  Also feel free to send over the excellon file.  You can post here or just email me directly at matt.berggren@autodesk.com and I'll have a crack at loading it on my machine.  I may need the PCB if the file looks screwy but I'll let you know.  If you feel comfortable emailing it preemptively, then shoot it thru.  Just send to me directly.  

Best regards,

Matt - Autodesk

Director of Fusion Electronics

Autodesk EAGLE

[fernando.jimenezPLWDN]

I have scale issue

 i had something like this

X53629Y32100

X67129Y41600

X63129Y46600

X59129Y59200

X69129Y60100

X60329Y69600

X59929Y80200

but i need this

X53.629Y32.100

X67.129Y41.600

X63.129Y46.600

X59.129Y59.200

X69.129Y60.100

X60.329Y69.600

X59.929Y80.200

What can i do

Thanks a lot

[jorge_garcia]

Hi @fernando.jimenezPLWDN,

I hope you're doing well. The key here is that Viewmate didn't guess the excellon format specification correctly so now you have to specify it. By default EAGLE's exports the excellon file in 2.5 (you might see 1.5, same thing) leading zeroes supressed absolute inches. You have to tell viewmate the exact format and it will import correctly.

Viewmate in general does a good job guessing the specific format of a board but when the board is small there's a higher chance of an incorrect guess. EAGLE's output is just fine, you'll see that once you specify the correct format.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

[C.Nicks]

I use viewmate almost exclusively to review gerbers and have had a few problems over the years. When you go to import a gerber (or folder), select options from the dialog. From there you can tell it what format and units to import. For some reason most of my old scaling issues came from it importing metric when the files where exported in inches (the file even had the gerber unit for inches, but it got ignored for some reason).