Translation Flow Chart
There are three files associated with the Board Station database that contain useful layout information. These files are exported from Board Station in ASCII format and are loaded into the men2dxf translator.
IntroductionIf you need a simple way to move data from Mentor's Board Station PCB layout to AutoCAD's DXF file format for documentation or data transfer then Artwork's men2egs is the product for the job. Virtually every mechanical CAD program reads and writes DXF since it has become a defacto industry standard.
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Features
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Translation Flow Chart
There are three files associated with the Board Station database that contain useful layout information. These files are exported from Board Station in ASCII format and are loaded into the men2dxf translator. |
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geometry The geometry file contains all of the basic layout information: board outlines, layer definitions, component definitions, pad stack definitions, text, dimensions, silkscreen etc...It can be translated to DXF by itself since in many cases all the data you want to pass to the mechanical designer is included here. However you will not get any components or circuit traces if only the geometry layer is translated. This information is contained in the comp and trace file.
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comp The comp file contains component placement information. It is essentially a series of component names and insertion points. The actual layout of the component and the footprint should already have been defined in the geom file. Associated with each component placement are variables such as reference designators and properties.
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trace The trace file contains a list of the vertex points and widths for circuit traces. It also contains vias that connect traces from layer to layer and area fill boundaries. The trace file contains netlist associations which are not of interest to the mechanical designers.
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Online DocumentationFor further details on the men2dxf you can view or print one of the manual chapters in HTML or PDF format. You can get the Acrobat 3.0 Reader free from Adobe's site. for a variety of platforms including Windows, Sun, HP, IBM, SGI etc... |
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| Description | HTML | |
| Running men2dxf | chp3.htm | chp3.pdf |
| Running dxf2men | chp4.htm | chp4.pdf |
| The Mentor Ample GUI | chp5.htm | chp5.pdf |
| SunOS | Solaris | HPUX |
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