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v7 Versus v6.x

Compared to the most widely used versions 6.1 for PCB prototyping and 6.2 for Laser manufacturing, the new version 7.0 offers the following main advantages:

  • totally new way of NC tool path generation in the form of customizable jobs
  • new "Quick access" view that lists available jobs with pictures and explanatory text (v 7.0.1)
  • library management for electronic components including footprint, package data, macros and more
  • generator for electronic packages
  • enhanced Geometric Manipulation Center (GMC)

Details per variant:

General - Viewer enhancements

New features for the Viewer and all other variants:

  • Selection of graphical objects that are bigger or smaller than a given value. This can be combined with other selection filters such as layers or object types.
  • Zoom-in and -out is now centered on the actual cursor position.
  • Panning is available with ALT+right mouse button.
  • Display of version number of CAM format in properties dialog is nothing is selected, actual version of CAM format is 1.1
  • Support of HP-GL pen width (PW) commands
  • Automatic color assignment for new created layers
  • Preview / World View: When you zoom deeply into a big layout it is often not easy to track the current global position. The world view always tells you where you are. Otherwise when a layout from the library view or a tool from the tool view it selected a preview of the selected element is displayed.

Basic Variant

Similar to previous Lite and PCB variant

  • New dialog to create base material and fixture holes
  • Optimized tool-path generation for insulate jobs
  • Updated Combine and Combine to Polygon function. User can now define a minimum gap between paths to combine. At the end a statistic of the results is given.
  • Added path manipulation operators (move, add, delete, cut, ...) in context menu
  • Tool compensation function as a separate available low level CAM operation
  • Extended layer selection for export tasks for all layers and all visible layers (v 7.0.1)
  • Fixed minor issues with HP-GL and DXF export
  • Tool compensation: Calculates the offset curve for a given boundary curve
  • Cancel button together with progress bars in long running calculations
  • Improved manual control and editing of the ordering (sequence) of tool paths 

Laser Variant

Similar to previous PCB variant, but now with Laser insulate and fill support

  • Export to HP-GL with variable tool-width command to drive Laser machines with variable Laser aperture within a given range.
  • Updated import of compressed and bundled ODB++ files (tar, format, extension *.tgz)
  • Customizable batch jobs functionality with geometry engine
  • Export to Postscript (v 7.0.1)

Pro Variant specific functionality

Similar to previous Laser variant

  • GMC library now integrated with the general library function for footprints
  • After Package recognition an associated optimized footprint can automatically be inserted to replace the original footprint.
  • Libraries can be shared by several users on a network drive
  • Export of layout instances in a configurable CSV (comma separated values) format
  • Package recognition: Information which packages & types actually be used for recognition is stored independently from the library file.
  • Library: Statistic dialog, displaying the number of objects per type and category
  • Creating footprints from footprint occurrence via GMC
  • Enhanced property view to display info about the selected layout or layout  instance