[Pcb2gcode-devel] Internal board cutouts

[Matthijs K. <mat...@st...>]

Hi folks,

I'm trying to make a board with a rectangular internal slot cut out (an
opening for some leds to peek through). However, I'm not sure how to
achieve this using pcb2gcode (and Kicad for the original design).

I'm trying to model this on the outline / edge cuts layer. I've tried:

 1. Drawing the board outline as well as the cutout using lines. This
    somewhat has the intended effect, in the sense that pcb2gcode
    generates two toolpaths - on for the edge, one for the cutout.
    Howver, both of them are milled on the _outside_, making the cutout
    bigger than intended. I can of course shrink the cutout in Kicad,
    but I'd like to avoid having to hardcode the cutting bit diameter in
    my pcb design.
 2. Drawing the board outline as a filled zone, using a cutout area for
    the slot. This results in just the board outline being milled, the
    cutout entirely disappears in the gcode. Looking a the gerber file,
    this produces a G36 polygon that uses a single line to define both
    the board edge and cutout (so there is a line from the board edge to
    the cutout). That line is defined both in a G36/G37 polygon, as well
    as outside the polygon (to give some thickness to the line,
    perhaps).

In both cases, I've used fill-outline=0, IIRC setting it to 1 doesn't
help.

Is pcb2gcode capable of producing such cutouts? Any suggestions for a
working workflow?

Gr.

Matthijs