Milling a PCB from within Altium Designer

Altium Designer includes some pretty sophisticated scripting capabilities so I had a go at writing a script to generate RML (Roland Milling Language) commands from an Altium Designer PCB so I I can mill out prototype PCBs using a low-cost milling machine. This is great for schools and Universities too since you don't need to muck around with messy etching chemicals.
You can find the script in a standard install of Altium Designer (Summer 08+) in the following folder: \Examples\Scripts\Delphiscript Scripts\Pcb\Mill Exporter or download it from the 'Projects' section of my home page: http://wiki.altium.com/display/ADOH/Dr+Marty+Hauff

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• Altium Designer
• Roland DG
• PCB
• RML
• Prototyping
• Printed Circuit Board

[KingMartifa]

Altium Designer is fundamentally a PCB layout tool. I'm not familiar with the capabilities of IsoPro's software and what file formats it can accept but Altium Designer can produce gerber, ODB++, DXF, as well as native ASCII formats. If IsoPro can read any of those files then it sounds like a link might be possible.

[KingMartifa]

@altium1 - I only use Virtual Modela to visualize the final output. The G-code is created directly from the script. If you have Altium Designer Summer 09, the script is included in the examples folder. Otherwise email me at marty (dot) hauff (at) altium (dot) com and I will email you the script directly.

[KingMartifa]

@MrElile44 - Well spotted! If you're referring to the merging of tracks visible at about 3:48 in the video, it's because the design I used didn't have sufficient clearance for the polygon pour to squeeze a path between some of the tracks. The Mill path is taken from the polygon outline so you need to make sure there is sufficient space for the polygon to pour between all tracks. Using design rules to enforce a larger clearance between tracks prior to running the script is the best solution.

[bartekzajk]

@KingMartifa Hi! I used this script and everything is ok, but script not generate me any G-code file only .mdt file for VirtualModela. Can you write what more should be done to mill pcb (maybe some soft .mdt file to convert to gcode?). I have a machine Rolland MDX-15 with the full software.

[jaspers22]

Is there a way to interface IsoPro's Quick Circuit Milling machine with Altium?

[altium1]

@KingMartifa - Thanks. Of course, the script is in AD Summer 09. I was copy and save for future implementations (for example, AD 10 have not included this magnificient script). But how we can define the geometry of milling instrument? What kind of machine control software you use to import .mdt output file?

[altium1]

Great solution. But when I see, you use Virtual Modela post processor.

How you make g-code? From where I can download this soft?

[MrElile44]

Nice, but a bit misleading. The density is too big on this card as some nets are not separated. Could a thinner tool do the job?

[Marcelmx3]

@KingMartifa Thanks for the great info, i will first have a try myself before any further consult :)

[KingMartifa]

@Marcelmx3 Main Program is MillExporter.pas. The main routine is called RunMillExporter and this calls ExportDrillFiles() and ExportMillFiles(). If you follow the calling path through, you'll notice calls to functions starting with RML_... These are the RML specific language functions. To target a different g-code system, these are the functions that would need to be retargeted.

I'm happy to open a more direct dialog to discuss: marty dot hauff at altium dot com.