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www.us-
tech.com
May, 2019
Ucamco Develops Format for PCB Drill Data
San Francisco, CA — Ucamco, KiCad and Pentalogix have developed XNC, a format for PCB drill data, with the support of Graphicode, Cuprum and ZofzPCB. XNC is a strict subset of the ubiquitous NC or Excellon data. Freely available and simple to imple- ment, XNC is designed to take the confusion out of CAD software devel- opment and the CAD-CAM drill data exchange process. From CAD development to CAM
Manufactured in the U.S.A. since 1966
www.westbond.com
1551 S. Harris Court Anaheim, CA 92806 Tel 714·978·1551
engineering processes, existing NC drill data CAD-CAM transfer process- es are deeply flawed, due to the use of inappropriate data format specifica- tions. The simplest solution would be to use the Gerber format to transfer drill data instead of NC formats. How- ever, for decades, drill information has been transferred using formats such as Excellon that are similar to the 1985 IPC-NC349 specification, and much legacy software is still in use. The problem is that so many NC
files are of deplorable quality. This is because the NC format, designed as a machine driver rather than for data transfer, contains all sorts of infor- mation that is confusing and irrele- vant for CAD-CAM. Not least for the CAD software developer, whose job it is to wade through overcomplicated formats and pick the parts that could serve the CAD-CAM data transfer process, inevitably including more than necessary, thereby adding fur- ther confusion, for fear of missing out on important elements. The first step towards improv-
ing the NC drill chaos is to develop a simple, clear specification based on an existing format that can be read
by all decent PCB drill input soft- ware. To this end, some of the world’s leading CAD software houses have together developed the CAD/CAM Exchange NC format (XNC), a com- plete, compact and unequivocal sub- set of IPC-NC-349 that transfers CAD/CAM drill information without the need for additional sidecar files. They have added to this the
power of Gerber-type attributes that provide machine-readable metadata on complete files, tools or individual holes, that describe their characteris- tics in a standard, flexible way. XNC files can be added seamlessly to Ger- ber X2 data sets, while also ensuring that the format is compatible with software that does not read attributes. With XNC, CAD developers can
create output software easily and quickly, using formats that are al- ready well-known, but without hav- ing to choose from a bewildering array of possibilities and functionali- ties, or reverse engineer from multi- ple incomplete and confusing NC files. Its designers guarantee that if CAD developers limit themselves to using just the XNC format, they will give their clients exactly what they need: a tight, unequivocal problem- free specification that will improve the CAD-CAM data transfer process overnight, and an NC reference that paves the way to a common standard
for NC files. Contact: Ucamco USA, 1388
Gough Street, Suite 407,
San Francisco, CA 94109 % 415-508-5826 E-mail:
info@ucamco.us Web:
www.ucamco.com
See at SMTconnect, Hall 4A Booth 530
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