Boldport

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First board made with PCBmodE sent off to manufacturing!

A couple of weeks ago I introduced PCBmodE, software I wrote for creating functional and artistic PCBs. Other than the artsy bit, the unique feature of PCBmodE is that the board is completely generated from information stored in JSON files, so it's completely revision-controlled, cross-platform (software written in Python), and portable. I like to say that "my board is compiling" while on reddit ;) Its native graphical representation is SVG with a post-processor for generating "extended Gerber" files for manufacturing.

Since the last update, I've added auto-generated measurement arrows to indicate the board's dimensions, a layer index, and the ability to add information to the documentation layer. I've also rearranged the structure of the project and made it more presentable in preparation to releasing it. Here's how 'pieceof' revision A looks like as sent to the PCB house:

A PNG of the SVG with all layers included
View of Gerbers using 'gerbv' (gerbv's bitmap export isn't great; it all looks very smooth and aligned)
Rendered with webGerber

Rendered with webGerber

After communicating with a few PCB manufacturers I finally sent out the board for fabrication with Eurocircuits, who have a PCB viewer as part of the ordering process -- very useful for me. I ordered ten pieces that should be here within seven working days!