Silkscreen

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Please attach the PDF file to this thread and I will give it a look.

Michael Catrambone
UTStarcom, Inc.

Thanks for the quick reply.  I have attached the picture. 

If you look on the left hand side of the PCB in the picture, you will see the labelling for the DIMM's.

Vicki

That would require voids in a silkscreen shape. The only way I know of to do that is through Skill. However a "negative" silkscreen layer might also do the job - but you would have to have confidence that your fabricator would get it right or you would end up with a very white board!

OK.  Here is the steps to accomplish this:

1. Add the text to the design (DIMM1, DIMM2, DIMM3, etc)
2. Go to File > Plot Setup and under the IPF setup make sure Vectorized text is selected and the width is set to 0. (This will explode the text into line draws in the Plot file)
3. Create a IPF Plot file using File > Export > IPF or  by typing "create plot" on the Command line.
4. Load the IPF Plot file generated in Step 3 using File > Import > IPF or by typing "load plot" on the Command line.
5. Before placing/selecting load point of the Plot file change your Active Class and Subclass under the Options tab to Class: Etch / Subclass: Top.
6. On the Command line type the following: "set av_notrim" (This may not be required by you will get a better voids in some cases and never should be used for ETCH Layer shapes) 
7. Define a Filled Rectangle (Type: Static Solid) on top of each of the exploded text strings on Class: Etch / Subclass: Top.
8. Now you need to generate the voids of the line draws using Shape > Manual Void > Element, select the Filled Rectangl, use the Right Mouse Button popup menu and select "Void All".
9. It will ask you if it is OK to break the shape up into multiple shapes which you can just highlight Continue then click the OK button.
10. Now all you need to do is Z-Copy this shape or shapes to your silkscreen layer.
11. If you set the av_notrim variable in Step 8 please reset it back when you are done by typing on the Command line "unset av_notrim". (NOTE: It is very important that you unset this variable because it disables the shape cleaning routines which could cause problems on ETCH layers)

Thats it.  Please play with this a little bit and see what you think.  You may have to change the width or height of your text to get the results you want until you get the hang of it.

Hope this helps,
Michael Catrambone
UTStarcom, Inc.

Michael,

Thanks for your help.  It takes a bit of time, but it works!  I haven't yet viewed the gerber files, but I'm sure it'll have the effect I was looking for.

Vicki