I think I have answered my own question , it appears that the Double Sided PCB Tool is used on the PCB bottom gerber file before any other operations are done , probably a result of me not understanding the process . Anyway I have got it to work so it's all good :). Oh and by the way it is a fantastic bit of software and a tribute to your software ability. Because of this software I have managed to set up a totally open-source tool chain to make prototype PCB's and laminated plastic QR codes for my University research project. Kudo's to you. Jim
Hi Jim, I apologize for not responding earlier. The terminology can get a little complicated at times: A Gerber Object is the "data" managed in FlatCAM. The data gets flipped, bit there is no new Gerber file created. Any operations on this "flipped data" will be flipped as well, so will be the final G-Code file you will get from it... But you figured this so far I believe! Thanks for the positive comments! Spread the word. Thanks, JP
Hi Jim, I have a problem with creating alignment holes using Double sided PCB tool. Mirroring works fine, but when I click 'Create alignment drill' nothing happens. There are no any files created by FlatCAM. What is the order of operations on oyur side? Maybe I do something wrong. I create mirror directly from gerber files loaded into FlatCAM. I fully agree with you that FlatCAM is amazing piece of software. Excellent job from Juan Pablo Caram. Thx a lot :) :) :) Regards - Seb.
I select the bottom Copper gerber file then on the Tool Tab I have radio button Mirror Axis set to X and Axis Location radio button set to Point ,Drill Diam to 0.5mm. I then clicked the Mirror Object button and you will see this flip your bottom layer. I then right clicked on a point of my x axis to copy the co-ordinates like (123.1897, -133.4510) to the clipboard then pasted this into Point/Box textbox. I then right clicked on two points separately along the x axis either side of my board pasting the individual clipboard values into the Alignment holes Text box separated by a comma like the following (125.0036, -129.2186),(282.2052, -121.0562) . You then select the Alignment Drills file and on the selected Tab you press the Generate button , this will create the CNC job and you will see the tool paths between the drill holes on your design. I've added a screenshot of the FlatCam window. Hope this helps. Best Wishes. -Jim [Screenshot from 2015-04-13 17:55:33](//muut.com/u/flatcam/s2/:flatcam:0pza:screenshotfrom20150413175533.png.jpg)
Thanks a lot Jim :) :) :) I forgot to type the separating comma between Alignment holes coordinates. I appreciate your quick response a lot. Thanks and regards - Seb.