FAZE Electronics
Rimu PCB tips & tricks
Rimu PCB is available from www.hutson.co.nz . The software is available as a free download to try-before-you-buy and
is VERY reasonably priced at around R 500 ZAR. Absolutely wort it. Rimu PCB is Windows based, so it has all the nice
things like copy, paste, multiple undo/redo etc you would use in most other Windows based softwares. Of the about 50
PCB programs I tried, (I got tired of old Dos programs, and some are ridiculously expensive) Rimu has the best
functions, works the easiest and learning to use it is like maybe an hour or so, unless you are as slow as me, then an
hour and one minute.
I've put this page up because many guys phone me and ask help on cam outputs and also to converting other PCB
formats to Rimu etc etc. No, I'm not getting any commission for this. I know how frustrating it is if you cannot
get things done without help or support.
Also being able to put a graphic on a PCB is also a new thing for (most) engineers, so, hopefully you'll find your “how
do I's” on this page. Some of the things mentioned here may differ from the Tutorials. I recommend you work through
them. No, actually do really work through them. As the software is so versatile, there are more than one way of doing
certain things. You have to use what works best for you. Here I only tell you how I do it.
Using Rimu is really easy if you know how to do a few basic things. I used Rimu for just a few minutes, and I was sold.
Note that you have different menu's when right clicking ON an object and when you right click OFF any object...
When using Rimu for the first time I recommend you do a couple of things to start off easy. As I was used to Tango
PCB's layers color scheme, I changed my Rimu's to look the same. Red = Top, Green = Bottom, White = Top Silk,
Light blue = Bottom Silk etc.
I also changed the background color to be the same as the board color, in my case black, so it will not look as if you
have only a limited size board. This block is changed if you change the View, Project Settings. I use my snap to grid set to
0.125mm. Unfortunately the grid cannot be finer currently, and the zoom in will be bettered in the future.
Next you will want to create your own custom components library for your own components. To do this, select files
and place any component from any library. You double click the component and move your mouse to the black (PCB)
area. Place the component by clicking only once else you'll have 2 components on top of one another. Right click &
select cancel. Now right click the component, and select add to library. Right click any library, and select copy.
Right click again and select paste. This is about what you should have....
Right click your copy of.... file and select rename. Name it anything you want. You now have a custom created library
where you can put all your frequent and custom components in.
Create a border to place around square or rectangle PCB's as follows.
Set the general track thickness to
0.2mm
Start top left to draw a small rectangle, clockwise, click each time you make a 90 degree turn like this.
At the end right click and select End Track.
Right click the rectangle and select add to library – select your new library, name it Board and click OK. Your first
component created!
To draw a board a specific size, place Board (your new component) on the top left of your screen. Select it. Note
that the size is showed in the bottom right of the screen. To size it ie 100mm x 50 mm, place the cursor over the
right leg, click and drag right until the size shows 100mm. If you need to go larger than the current screen, the
screen will scroll when you drag over the side. Do the same with the bottom leg. If the board is large, you can use
the Zoom To Area to zoom in on the track, then fine tune your size. The reason you place the rectangle top left
and drag right and drag down is because the “open” side of the rectangle is at the top left. If you drag the top leg
up or the left leg left, your rectangle will open up and you will have to rejoin the ends.
To move the rectangle without resizing it, unselect it by clicking anywhere else, then click and hold the mouse button
on the rectangle while moving it to where you want it.
Round and Oval PCB's are just as simple. Simply Place, Arc, drag it to a size, Double click to open properties
change width and height to the required size, select the layer, click on Arc, change the arc Width. If the board
must have a flat side. You can either change the Start and End Angles, or you can drag the Yellow dot(s) on the
arc itself until it's how you want it. Connect with a track.
Creating a new component with Rimu is really easy. Place any component. Right click, select Footprint, Edit Footprint.
Create your part, add as many pads, lines, text, etc as you want. A part can even be a group of components!
If you edit a pads properties, note that you can edit the pad identifier. By placing text there ie Vcc, when
routing the board, you have less chance of connecting tracks to the wrong pin. When done, click top left corner
on Footprint and select Close and Update. Now double click your new components, and give it a unique name and OK.
Right click on the component and Add To Library.
Be careful not to delete components selected under files on the left
if your intention is to delete objects from the board.
Placing graphics ie logo's, signs etc is a very cool Rimu PCB feature. It really impress a customer when you place his
logo or a product relevant graphic on his PCB, it means you have made it special. Remember, you don't have colors
you can display the image with on the board, so a “single color” silhouette is what you are placing on the PCB. Also keep in mind that
very fine detail cannot be made for etching and screening on a PCB.
To place an image on the PCB you need a graphic editor that can create a negative image of a bitmap, capture a
selection etc. There's plenty of them for free, try www.freewarehome.com . I use Arts & Letters' Picture Perfect,
but even Windows Paint works. (Yes you have it, go Start, All Programs, Accessories, Paint ! Hmmm...)
Open the image in the graphics editor program. You can now choose to invert the image or not. The lighter colors
and areas will be seen on the board. By inverting the colors the inverse will be seen. Select the area you would like
to place on the PCB. Go Edit, Copy. Open Rimu, right click somewhere and select Paste. The image will appear under
the cursor. Click to place and scale as desired.
Here is an example of what you can
expect
Keep in mind that you can place these
images on any layer you want – double click and select your layer. REMEMBER to flip the image if there is text on
it if you put it on the bottom layer(s)... If you want a better defined image, you have to edit it and make some of
the lines thicker.
In this example
the alarm clock will come out fine, but the bugle/trumpet (what do
you call
these things anyway?) probably won't. The detail is too fine . You will have to make it very large to work (the bigger,
the fatter the lines). These images were placed on the top silk layer. Here are some GRAPHICS and my own
created LIBRARY you can download for free. Right click & save as... A word of caution, placing large graphics will
make the cam files large, so just make sure you keep it to a couple of Mbyte and not wander into the Gbytes... or you
may experience difficulty in e-mailing the files to Bosco. I use Winzip to zip them, the files you e-mail are much smaller..
Tip; When having SMD PCB's made, ask the manufacturer not to clip the
top overlay. The little borders around the SMD components help to keep them in place almost like a little funnel during
soldering, and less reworking is necessary afterwards.
Importing other formats into Rimu.
Let me just say in short – there are no another PCB file formats you cannot get into Rimu PCB.
A huge concern for anyone that uses another PCB program is usually how to convert some of their old files to
Rimu and not have to redo all the work all over.
You must understand that PCB file formats are extremely different from one another. To expect one program
to import any and all formats is about the same as when you expect to cross a cow with a fish. Some formats
are sort of a middle way, ie DXF, but even they are not always compatible with everything a program software can
output. So, the bad news is you probably cannot import your file directly into Rimu PCB. The good news is you can
import a file indirectly into RIMU PCB. The bad news is you will have to do a few things to be able to. The good
news is it doesn't take long. Wanna give it a go?
From your old software, output your ie top layer as an image, if this function is not available, You can even do a
screen capture if no graphic output
available. The file output I got look like this
This is
also a good indication of how untidy some software outputs look.
Negative the image you get
Now copy it, Edit, Copy.
Switch to Rimu, on the board area paste. Select it as an inner layer, place a known component ie an IC .
This is what it looks like now.
To scale the image, drag it until the IC fits.
Now place all the other components. The ones not in Rimu's libraries you can create real quick. When all the
components are placed, route the
tracks. The inner layers tracks not routed will be visible.
When done, you delete the inner layer.
The top layer only is left.
If you have another layer, do exactly the same. Place everything also on the top layer. When you have deleted the
inner layer, select the bottom layer (still on top) components (use shift to select them all), left top select bottom layer.
All components are now on the bottom layer, while the tracks are still on top. You will notice the IC's have been
flipped correctly for the bottom layer. Components on the top layer must not be placed again, only tracks. Switch
all the bottom layers off on the Layers (left) so you can only select on the top layer. Only the tracks are now visible.
Select them all with your mouse and top left select the Bottom.
It will now appear as if the tracks disappeared. On the left, reactivate the bottom layers to make them visible.
Now select the complete top layer and drag it until it is on top of the bottom layer. If something goes wrong, you
can at any time Undo (Ctl Z) and redo. Switch the top layer off and check that the bottom layer tracks are routed
properly. It may seem like a difficult operation, but it's actually very easy.
Here I flipped the PCB horizontally and
selected the tracks to be on the bottom layer.
If this was a board that was up for production, now would be a good time to convert it to SMD. 10 of the
15 components can be SMD, this will cut production time in about half, the PCB will be smaller and the PCB will look
much more modern and professional. Add some graphics and you would have outdone yourself.
You may also have drawed everything from scratch, but if this was a board that worked previously, spacing is
correct, all the tracks are routed, (no prototypes to test) and it took me as long as it took you to read this.
As an alternative, you can download and use SKPRINTER.ZIP. It is a virtual printer that will when installed
allow you to print a .BMP file directly into Paint. If you have a Gerber Viewer for your old layouts, you can
print each layer into Paint. You can also print directly from your old program if it sees Windows printers.
When the image is in Paint, you can Invert Colors, Select All, Copy, switch to Rimu and paste.
Any Font you have installed (also dingbats) can be used to place in Rimu.
If you experience difficulty Printing your layouts the correct size when Fit To Page is selected, change your View,
Project Settings, Size to a smaller size. The image will fit bigger. (Note, 1:1 still is 1:1 Ok!)
If you need to print your layouts for assembly purposes to indicate the component values and positions, then values
can be displayed on any inner layer not used, You have to enable and select the inner layer, and then move it to the
front. Place each components value (as text) in that layer on top of each component. When you print the layout,
select only the top overlay and the inner layer.
You end up having something that looks
like this
.
a Few Quick and very nice RIMU PCB functions and features:
PgUp, PgDn Zoom in and out. This feature has not been enabled to zoom in and out while placing a component.
Ctl C Copy whatever is selected.
Ctl V Paste whatever was copied to the cursor.
Space Bar Rotate everything selected by 90 deg.
You can rotate anything selected any degrees. Go Edit Rotate.
Mirror X and mirror Y.
Aligning and Space Evenly Across. Isn't this really cool? How long do you battle to align and space components?
The Place Dimension Line is great for measuring things.
See the size of anything selected in the bottom right corner.
The quick place dropdown menu's are great. Hopefully some extra ones soon
Pads and tracks can be almost any size.
Pad's holes can even be a slot so you can now PCB mount ie 25A diode bridges with flat tabs.
Holes only can be placed that won't be through-hole-plated when made.
Holes can be made as slots in the PCB that won't be through-hole-plated when made.
You can change the cursor to be a cross hair, View, Cross Hair.
A layer must be enabled in View Project Settings before it can be seen and used.
Certain objects can be grouped.
If a specific group of items is placed often that has to be in a certain relation to one another, select them
and save it as a fragment. This can now be easily duplicated or reused for another layout.
Outputs high quality cam files for PCB manufacturers.
For more information on designing fault free PCB's click HERE.
Add julian@hutson.co.nz to your contact list. Julian wrote and also use the software.
Well, maybe not ALL the time.
You have to sleep a few hours now and then you know...
Always look forward to the future – no one has ever backed into prosperity.
FAZE Electronics Design & Manufacture Commercial and Industrial Electronics
Phone +27 12 661 4751
Fax +27 12 661 9949
Mobile 082 456 6925