Importing Gerber and Drill Data - LAB

Use File/New to begin a new CAM350 session.

Select File/Import/Auto Import and set a path to the PCB2CAM350/

Gerber directory.

Set the button for Metric, then select Finish. 

Cam350 will automatically select and load the Gerber and NC drill files.

During the loading process a message will pop up warning of “Unassigned Tools. 

This concerns drill sizes which have not yet been set and is normalbehavior.

Note: Because this demonstration board has Blind and Buried vias the

             message pops up 3 times. Once for each drill set.

Experiments:

• What happens when you load the files with set the button set to English?

• What happens when you select Next instead of Finish?

Make sure the Gerber and Drill files are loaded correctly before proceeding.

Use the Settings/Units pull down menu and select Metric.

Use the File/Save As command at this point to open a new CAM350 database for this design. Set the path to your practice area and assign the file a unique name (i.e. don’t use the same name as the Demo files).

Use the CAM_Demo_Offset.CAM file as a reference if you have any questions.

Note: the dot “CAM” file extension denotes a native CAM350 formatted file.

            CAM350 files are Opened using File/Open.

Creating an IPC-D-356 Netlist - LAB

The utility CAM350 uses to produce the IPC-D-356 netlist is an installation option. 


If you haven’t purchased the CAM350 CAD to IPC option you will not be able to perform this step. Instead, use the CAM_Demo_IPC.Net file provided in the Lab demonstration materials. 


Open a new session of CAM350. 


Using File/ Import > CAD Data select the PowerPCB CAD format. 


Set a path to Cam_Demo.ASC and Open it. 
(It’s not necessary to Extract Polygons for net checking and you can acknowledge the warnings that follow). 


Once the ASCII file has loaded, Export the IPC-D-356 netlist using the File/Export > Netlist > IPC-D-356 option. 


Set a path to your practice directory, assign a filename for the netlist and Save it. 


There is no need to save the imported ASCII file once the IPC-D-356 netlist has been saved.