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Importing PCB footprint files into SolidWorks

Brad Hieb
Prodigy 110 points
Other Parts Discussed in Thread: CONTROLSUITE, DRV8312, DRV8301

I would like to import the PCB design files for the board used in the DRV8312-69M-C2-Kit into SolidWorks.  Unfortunately, SolidWorks (and CircuitWorks) cannot import Gerber files.  Could someone at Ti convert the board Gerber files into IDF format?

For reference:

The Gerber files I need converted are in the following folder within the ControlSuite:

"controlSUITE\development_kits\DRV8312-C2-KIT_v128\~DRV8312EVM-HWdevPkg\DRV8312_RevD_HWDevPKG"

  • 0
    Prodigy 110 points
    The reason I want to import the board layout into SolidWorks is because I want to embed the DRV8312 dev board into a mechanical assembly. At a minimum I need the overall dimensions of the board, the locations of all the mounting holes, and the mount hole diameters. If there is a drawing that has this information, that world cover my needs and would negate the need to convert the board Gerber files into IDF format for SolidWorks import.

    Brad.
  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    Hi Brad,

    Sorry, we do not provide this service.
  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    Prodigy 110 points

    Hi Rick,

    OK, I see.  In that case is there a drawing of the board with the overall dimensions of the board and the locations of all the mounting holes?

    Brad Hieb

  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    Hi Brad,

    There should be. We will check and get back to you.
  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    TI__Guru** 114905 points

    Hi Brad,

    I downloaded the Allegro Free Viewer to view the .brd file available at LINK

    Once opened, I found the following information

    Board size is: 5125 x 7250 mils

    Mounting Holes are 126 mils and located at the following points:

    PIN MH1.1 @ (150.0 7100.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole

    PIN MH2.1 @ (4975.0 7100.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    PIN MH3.1 @ (195.0 6120.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    PIN MH4.1 @ (4590.0 6120.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    PIN MH5.1 @ (150.0 150.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    PIN MH6.1 @ (4975.0 150.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    PIN MH7.1 @ (150.0 4155.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    PIN MH8.1 @ (4975.0 3830.0)  126.0 MIL drill hole.

    Please double check using the free viewer.

  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    Prodigy 110 points
    Hi Rick,

    Thanks for this info. I was looking over the files from the link you provided and I noticed they were all for a DRV8301/DRV8302EVM board. Are these boards the same as the DRV8312 board used in the DRV8312-69M-Kit?

    Brad.
  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    Prodigy 110 points
    Hi Rick,

    I downloaded the Allegro/OrCAD/SIP/MCM FREE Physical Viewers v16.6, but was unable to open the .brd file. Can you elaborate a bit more on how you were able to do this? The viewer is called "Cadence SIP Free Physical Viewer" v16.6. It appears that it only knows about the following file formats: .sip, .dps, .mcm, .dpm, .mdd, and .dra. Perhaps I downloaded the wrong viewer?
  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    Hi Brad,

    My apologies. The DRV8301 is not the same as the DRV8312 board. Let me do a little more research.
  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    Hi Brad,

    I may not have the most recent version. I selected File -> Open. The menu appears, and I changed the Files of type: to "Designs (*.brd,*.dpf)".
  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    Prodigy 110 points
    Hi Rick - can you tell me what version of the viewer you are using? When I tried doing a File -> Open in v16.6 and when the file browser menu appears, the "Files of type:" pull down lists "Designs (*.sip, *.dps), but no option to open *.brd files.
  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    The version I have is listed as Allegro PCB Designer version 16.6
    As mentioned, it has been some time since I originally downloaded the file.

    Once installed, there are several options in the start menu. I chose "Allegro Free Physical Viewer 16.6"
  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    Hi Brad,

    Updated information based on the gerber files.

    The size is 5315 mils x 5118 mils -- measured using a gerber viewer
    The hole diameter is 115 mils and locations in mils are
    X0.1181Y0.1181
    X1.2205Y0.1427
    X5.1969Y0.1181
    X0.1181Y1.9685
    X5.0541Y1.9193
    X1.2205Y4.7096
    X5.1969Y5.0000
    X0.1181Y5.0000

    This location and diameter were determined by opening the ThruHolePlated.ncd file using wordpad and interpreting the information, and matching it with the DrillDrawing.gbr.

    T04C0.1150 <- T04 is object name, C0.1150 <- 115 mil diameter hole
    Once the T04 was located, the next step was to find where T04 was used.
    T04
    X001181Y001181
    X012205Y001427
    X051969Y001181
    X001181Y019685
    X050541Y019193
    X012205Y047096
    X051969Y05
    X001181

    The information appears to be cryptic on the last entry. There is no Y, but the drill drawing shows the Y = 05 also.

    As mentioned earlier, please double check the information. Hope this helps, and helps others interpret the information.
  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    Prodigy 110 points

    Hi Rick - thanks for providing this information!  I'll review the files to make sure I understand the syntax.  If I understood correctly the T04 object was defined in the Gerber file and was used for all the mounting holes.  So, the hole "object" T04 was defined, and then instantiated (used) in 8 locations.   Did the hole locations also come from the Gerber file DrillDrawing.gbr? 

  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points
    Hi Brad,

    The hole locations was taken from the ThruHolePlated.ncd file. I then used a gerber viewer on the DrillDrawing.gbr file to confirm the locations, plus confirm the hole sizes.
  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    Prodigy 110 points
    Hi Rick - OK, that's what I thought, but thank you for confirming. I followed your workflow and was able to verify the through hole locations using the workflow steps you outlined. I think I now have the information I need to manually create a SolidWorks model of the DRV8312EVM board so I can design the mechanical assembly to mount it. I wish it would have been easier, but I do have the information I needed thanks to you.

    Thanks again Rick, much appreciated.
  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    Prodigy 110 points

    HI Rick,

    One last question about the board mounting holes: how did you figure out the holes were type "T04" from the file "ThruHolePlated.ncd"? 

    There were lots of hole types (e.g. "T13") but I wanted to know how you were able to determine what the "T04" type was.  Only thing I could figure was you matched up the number of holes in the board with the number of x,y coordinates for a given hole type in "ThruHolePlated.ncd."  Was this what you did, or are the "Txy" hole type symbols a documentation standard that can be used to determine the type of hole?

  • 0 in reply to Brad Hieb
    TI__Guru** 114905 points

    Hi Brad,

    The DrillDrawing.gbr helped identify the holes. To the right of the board is the legend. I knew there were 8 mounting holes, so it was easy to deduce the size and whether they were plated.

    From the file, you can see there is only one entry with 8 holes. They are 115 mils and plated. That moved me on to finding a 115mil hole in the ThruHolePlated.ncd file. I searched for 115 and found the T04 above it. Then I searched for T04 and found 8 entries under the T04 heading. From there it was on to interpreting the information. I have done this before, so I was fairly confident I was reading it correctly. Plus if I was in doubt, I had the DrillDrawing.gbr to confirm.

    There was some confusion about the last couple of entries because of truncated digits, and no Y. This is were I used the gerber viewer to confirm the Y was 050000 for both.

    By the way I missed the big heading "BOARD DIMS" last time, and measured the board with a viewer.

    Hope this explains it.

  • 0 in reply to Rick Duncan
    Prodigy 110 points
    Hi Rick,

    OK, that's what I thought you might have done. It makes sense. I suppose the "Txy" notation does mean something, but for my purposes, correlating the number of holes to the hole type code in ThruHolePlated.ncd should be sufficient. Thanks again for all your help and suggestions!

    Brad.