CAMTASTIC_Cmd-DrillSlotDrillSlot_AD

Applied Parameters: CommandMode=NC

Summary

This command is used to place drill slots on the current document. Drill slots are used when you want to drill straight slots in the board.

Access

This command is accessed from the CAMtastic Editor by choosing the Place » Drill » Drill Slot (G85) command from the main menus.

Use

First, ensure that the layer you wish to place a drill slot on, is the active layer. This is achieved by double-clicking on the layer name in the layers list area of the CAMtastic panel.

After launching the command, the Select Mill/Drill Tool dialog will appear. Choose the tool you wish to use for drilling the slot from the list of available tools. After clicking OK, you will enter slot placement mode. Placement is made by performing the following sequence of actions:

1. Position the cursor at the required location in the workspace and click to anchor the starting point for the slot.
2. Move the cursor and click to place a second point for the slot.
3. Continue placing further vertices for the slot, clicking to define each new vertex, or right-click, or press Esc, to exit slot placement mode.

Tips

1. In order for this command to be available, make sure that you are in the NC Editor, rather than the CAM Editor. Editor selection is carried out from the View menu.
2. In order to add drill slots, tools must already have been defined, otherwise you will get a dialog alerting you to this fact and you will be directed to the Tool Table dialog, from where you can add tool definitions.
3. The fastest way to generate tools is to generate NC Drill files from the PCB design document. These are imported into the CAMtastic Editor, and the tool definitions added to the Tool Table dialog.
4. When a slot is drilled, the drilling machine actually drills overlapping holes, from the start point to the end point, in order to create the overall required slot in the board. In fact, multiple passes are often made to achieve the drilled slot. You will notice when adding a drill slot that a small white circle is visible inside the slot. This circle represents the size of the hole that will be drilled using the tool that you selected.