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I'm trying to export images of a board i made for testing purposes in order to use them for laser-cutting. I am using Eagle to create the board layout and export the images, but no matter what I do the images include areas outside the board. I am exporting the images using the command "EXPORT IMAGE image.bmp MONOCHROME 2048;". If, for example, I had a potentiometer in my board that had its shaft outside the board area, the output image would include that and therefore be much bigger than the board. I want the image output to be constrained to the board. Is there any way I can do that?

Thank you,

Riccardo

Riccardo Fagiolo
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  • Found almost similar question: https://electronics.stackexchange.com/questions/156809/eagle-printed-pcb-scale-problem – Sachin Jul 07 '17 at 10:34
  • @Sachin, it's a different problem. My scale is fine, I just don't want anything exported in my bmp outside the bounds of the board borders – Riccardo Fagiolo Jul 07 '17 at 10:48

4 Answers4

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At this moment I don't have my PC with EAGLE so i can't tell you the exact procedure, but when I had to export my layout to check the components size, I printed it with real size. I didn't export image i directly printed it.

If you send it to PDF creator or similar programs the image sizes may change and this will affect your case. Send top and bottom separately or print on two sides of the sheet.

Hope this will help you.

Dimitri
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EAGLE will export to the image, or print to PDF, all the layers being currently displayed in the board layout editor. All these layer are having their purpose, and, when designing devices using library editor, you must mind the layer you draw elements in. The drawings (or text) which must appear on the board should be in the layers place, names and values; all informative drawings like rotary switch body or other elements, outer component elements, should be drawn in "supportive" layers like Docu or Document (or any other custom layers). Thus when you print/export board's image, you turn all supportive layers off, and have only those which must appear on the printout turned on.

Anonymous
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A bitmap is not the typical file format used to create production data. Usually gerber files are used for this, and gerber production tools should be able to do this. You PCB fab has this.

Now you can only crop the bitmap with paint.net since Eagle will export all visible layers to PDF or Bitmap.

Jeroen3
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Eagle will draw all layers that are currently enabled to be visible to the image file. It uses the smallest axis-aligned rectangle to do this. As far as I know, there is no way to export a particular rectangle instead of the whole thing.

However, this not really a problem. The resolution you enter is pixels/inch, not pixels across the whole image. You therefore just crop the final picture to whatever rectangle you want, and you still get the resolution you entered.

Cropping a image can be done with many many programs out there.

Olin Lathrop
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