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pcb

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peter g

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hi all, I need some help with making a pcb. the board I want to make has the part placement superimposed on it. won't the parts show up on the etched board?
 
Are you making the PCB yourself? Are you adding soldermask and/or silkscreen?

Usually the "part placement" is shown by the silkscreen (the white outlines). That is a completely separate process to add that to your PCB - You'll need to etch the PCB using the copper designs, then you'll have to lay down soldermask using a second process, and then add silkscreen using a third process.

If you don't want the part placement shown, hide the silkscreen (and all other non-copper layers) and use that design for etching.

Your question is very unclear, so this is the best answer I can offer.

Matt
 
hi, i'am using the toner method to make the board. the author shows only one view of the pcb. it is a top view looking down at the board. the part positions are also shown. the toner will be applied to both and both will be etched. I want to only etch the board and not the parts position.
 
You're still not being very clear. What do you define as "the parts position"? What author? Which article are you following? How many layers is your board? This is all information that you should have put in your FIRST post.
 
Yes, you need a clear image of only the PCB traces.

Right, and if it's a two-layer board, you need two separate images. One of only the top layer traces and one of only the bottom layer traces.
 
hi, i'am using the toner method to make the board. the author shows only one view of the pcb. it is a top view looking down at the board. the part positions are also shown. the toner will be applied to both and both will be etched. I want to only etch the board and not the parts position.

Then that's not acceptable for "direct" toner transfer. It's also very likely that that image is not 1 X.

In this case, you would have to re-create the board in a PCB Layout package, then with the outputs you can do toner transfer. The PCB layout package treats stuff as Layers.
In a really simple case you have:
Outline - board shape and cutouts
Silk Screen - top
Top Layer
Bottom Layer
Solder Mask

Drill File

There are a LOT more layers possible. The Top and Bottom Layers have a lot more going on when there are non-plated thru holes.
 
This actually brings up another piece of information that you should have included in your FIRST post: What software package are you using to design the board?
 
DerStrom:

Remember when magazines used to publish the PCB layouts? Essentially it was a 1:1 image of the PCB without all of the extraneous stuff? That's what I think he wanted to use.

Instead, what "I think" he has is maybe a non 1:1 copy of an X-ray view of the PCB. A good example of the X-ray view would have a solid silk screen with greyed traces.
 
right on, keep it simple. however, the solution to my problem proved rather simple. I went int PAINT and erased all the lines I didn't want to etch. worked like a charm. thanks guys for your input I really appreciate it.
 
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