Drill Info

In order to run NETEX you must specify the Gerber files that represent your drills and also the layer stackup positions where the drill starts and where the drill ends. This will be used to create the vertical vias. The size of the via is derived from the flash aperture used in the Gerber files. Note that if you start with drill files they are first converted to Gerber using the drill2gbr utility.

In the NJB file the drill info section looks as follows:

B_DRILL
"C:\shared\data\drill17.gbr"  2  4  
E_DRILL

Column Definitions

Column 1 - path and file name. enter the full path and name of the Gerber file. If there are spaces in the path or file name be sure to quote the full path/filename.

Column 2 - start layer. enter the stackup position where the drill starts (when coming down from above.)

Column 3 - end layer. enter the stackup position where the drill ends. This layer gets the drill hole and the plating.

The drill section must begin with b_drill and end with e_drill. If you have buried or blind vias then there will be likely more than one drill file and the starting and ending layers will be different for each drill file.

Note that in order to obtain the drill data in Gerber format one generally uses the drill2gbr translator.