Milling PCBs - Gerber to G-code?

[uoficowboy]

Hi - we have a fairly nice 3 axis Fadal milling center with a tool changer. We use MasterCAM with Solidworks to mill parts. I use Altium Designer to design PCBs. I would like to use the milling center to mill out PCBs.

I've tried exporting DWGs from Altium Designer and importing them into Solidworks - but the traces always import with zero width.

I'm wondering if I'm going at this from the wrong angle - what about going from Gerber code, output from Altium Designer, and running some sort of Gerber to g-code converter on it?

Or any other ideas? Thanks!

[johnohara]

SourceForge PCB to GCode Project:

RepRap discussion from 2009

One more.

Hope this helps -- or at least points you in a productive direction.

~John

[uoficowboy]

SourceForge PCB to GCode Project:

RepRap discussion from 2009

One more.

Hope this helps -- or at least points you in a productive direction.

~John

Hi - The pcb2gcode project looks interesting, but it seems to be pretty incomplete and not very popular. Scares me. I'll still see if I can get it to compile though. It scares me when a project doesn't even include binaries...

[johnohara]

Seems as though there was a lot of activity in late 2008 - early 2009 and then it lost momentum.

Hmm. Too difficult or a different solution?

[uoficowboy]

Seems as though there was a lot of activity in late 2008 - early 2009 and then it lost momentum.

Hmm. Too difficult or a different solution?

Not sure. I also ran across this project: http://gcam.js.cx/index.php/Main_Page but from discussions in their forums it sounds like the Gerber support isn't all the way there just yet.

[johnohara]

I tried the Thomas Gootee method a couple of years ago and it works. The traces are very precise.

Perhaps you can use his method to create the board then use the mill to accurately drill the holes.

A thought.

~John