PCB scaling---GGG

[rockgardenlove]

How are you supposed to scale GGG boards?
50%?

[sta63bmx]

I just had to keep printing and rescaling until I got it right.  I'd make sure I knew one board dimension, open the GIF in Microsoft Office Photo Editor, make sure it was correctly cropped, and then print.  I'd set the print size to be "right" for one dimension and the other one was REALLY close.  If i's only off a little over the length of the board, IC sockets and stuff should fit ok.

[mikey]

At least some of the GGG GIFs are at 72dpi and the scaling matches up at 300dpi so 72/300 = 24% but that might not be true for all of them.

Which PCB are you talking about?

[choklitlove]

scaling is a problem that i really hope gets solved soon.  it's probably the worst part of diy effects.

[rbdl]

I always scale 25% for ggg layouts. Works for me.

[mdh]

I know I've given this solution before, but it works great for me, so you're gonna hear about it again. I use Inkscape (http://inkscape.sourceforge.net/), an open source vector graphics editor. You just turn on a 0.1 inch grid, import your gif or whatever, and scale it until the IC pins land on the vertices of the grid. Even if a circuit doesn't contain ICs, chances are the transistor pins will be on 0.1 inch centers, since many of us use sockets for transistors as well.

The advantage of using a vector graphics program is that you don't risk losing resolution by scaling repeatedly. You could, of course, use Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, but they would set you back a pretty penny if you don't already have them. Inkscape is free, available for all major platforms (I've used it under Mac OS X, Linux and Windows), and is more than sufficient. And no, I'm not one of the developers

[Cliff Schecht]

I've always used either 33% or 34%. I've built about 8 or 10 effects from that website now, at least.

[captntasty]

I crop the board in Photodraw to the outer board marker lines then size it based on the ruler.  Most GGG PCB's give some sort of scale measurement.  Some PCB's from other sites can be printed full size and they are correct, no scaling.

[rockgardenlove]

So there's no one size for everything!?

[R.G.]

scaling is a problem that i really hope gets solved soon.  it's probably the worst part of diy effects.

I guess if you've always had computers and the technology readily available to you, you don't appreciate the man-millenia of work that went into getting it to where it is. Scaling is a problem which will never be solved as long as there are representations of anything that are not full sized. It's a condition of nature that any representation that isn't full sized will have to be scaled. Get over it. Go find ways to scale circuits to the size you need.

This is easy these days. There are low cost, sample, or free programs to resize any image in software.

The distance between IC pins for DIP packages is always, 100% of the time, 0.1000000". Find any IC, and make the distance between the pins be a multiple of 0.1" over the biggest distance you can. Most layouts have distance markers on them to indicate the finished size of the layout. Scale to that.

So there's no one size for everything!?

Nope. Sorry.

You'll be a much more independent, self-reliant and capable person for being able to scale images to whatever size you need, and for the mental effort to figure out what size that needs to be. Stretch a little. Push hard. You can do it.

[rockgardenlove]

Well, I guess that's how it is then eh.  Kudo's to ROG and Fuzzcentral(and others of course) that stick to a set scale, or tell you what the scale is.
I took a stack of PCB's to a print shop to get them onto photopaper(Kinko's works well) and I was expecting to be able to at least have some set scale, and not weird percentages, like 24% and 38%.  Kind of annoyed me(and the guy helping me), that's all.

[R.G.]

At least part of the angst you heard was when I figured that out years ago. It frustrated me a lot until I figured out that the problem was with me expecting them to all be the same. Once I started expecting them all to be different and to have to adjust them, it was a much better emotional experience for me at least.

I hope I didn't sound too hard edged, but there are no standards for printing PCB artwork. Even if I did all of mine full sized (and I do, when I put them into the PDF files) that's no guarantee that GGG doesn't do some of the ones I didn't originate in a different scale. And even if we got the united front of GGG ROG, Tonepad and whomever decides in the next year to put up layouts, there is no reason to expect that other people would put them into the source files at a given size, or that the printer driver that prints them will print them the correct size, as printer drivers vary too.

It's one of my frustrations that I put layouts accurately 1.0000X size into PDFs that I turn out and then they still print at different sizes because of the printer/driver thing even if the programs carry the size correctly.

Let me propose a standard:
All PCB layouts to include an explicit size marker. That guarantees that it is possible to scale it properly without counting IC pins.

[choklitlove]

Let me propose a standard:
All PCB layouts to include an explicit size marker. That guarantees that it is possible to scale it properly without counting IC pins.

yeah, that's the only way i get by now.  i won't even touch a layout without pcb dimensions.

[Seljer]

Just wondering...how do you people make those PDFs?

[rockgardenlove]

A size marker is a good idea, personally I think it would also be a good idea just to say somewhere "Scale to X."

[$uperpuma]

I say bump the resolution and try a couple sizes until your IC sockets fit right... thats what I usually do...

[O]

Just wondering...how do you people make those PDFs?

I know I'm bumping an old topic, but... I have a layout & schem that I want to convert to a PDF. I really like how Tonepad (Francisco) creates the PDFs complete with a size marker, parts list, etc.

I already have the software needed, I just wanted to know if anyone had any pointers, tips, or a tutorial. Thanks!!