How do I create a drill template for my own PCB?

[Tuxedo3]

Hey guys, my question is about how to make a solid drill template based on my own PCB. I use Diptrace (and love it) but I'm unsure how to take my finished PCB and turn that into a usable drill template. I love the ones that Brian makes and I'd love to make mine as easy to read (and well structured) as those. Is the easiest way to export something from the PCB software and load that image into photoshop? Or to use the measurements of the board and make an object in photoshop? Here's a photo of the layout, I have the 3pdt's and the enclosure outline in it, so I want to keep all of those measurements the same.

[davent]

I don't have diptrace and if i understand the question correctly... with the software i use you can turn off the various layers so all you're left with as visible are the pads and traces layer. Change the traces and pads to black, background white.

dave

[wgc]

I use and love diptrace.  You're almost there.  It looks like you already have the enclosure in there so that will help a lot.

Some of the pot components have little center marks included- it looks like your's don't.  I ported the madbean eagle library over to diptrace a while back, since it includes many such useful things to us stompbox guys.  I think the rullywowr diptrace library includes some similar parts, which include the centers.  I tried to include an attached image, hope you can see it.

So, you might have to go back and "replace" components in schematic land so they have the marks you want included. You might have to rotate or tweak things a bit. Then update your layout so it includes the new parts in your schematic.  (This sounds harder than it is.  Save your updated schematic.  Go to file-renew design from schematic, and browse to the schematic file you just updated.  There might be some slight tweaking needed to the layout after you hit ok, but if it gets screwed up, you can undo, and don't have to save it!) 

After that, you can do the file-preview thing and toggle what's included in the view.  You can also scale everything to 100%, and save as an image.  The save image dialogue also lets you specify dpi.

[Tuxedo3]

I use and love diptrace.  You're almost there.  It looks like you already have the enclosure in there so that will help a lot.

Some of the pot components have little center marks included- it looks like your's don't.  I ported the madbean eagle library over to diptrace a while back, since it includes many such useful things to us stompbox guys.  I think the rullywowr diptrace library includes some similar parts, which include the centers.  I tried to include an attached image, hope you can see it.

So, you might have to go back and "replace" components in schematic land so they have the marks you want included. You might have to rotate or tweak things a bit. Then update your layout so it includes the new parts in your schematic.  (This sounds harder than it is.  Save your updated schematic.  Go to file-renew design from schematic, and browse to the schematic file you just updated.  There might be some slight tweaking needed to the layout after you hit ok, but if it gets screwed up, you can undo, and don't have to save it!) 

After that, you can do the file-preview thing and toggle what's included in the view.  You can also scale everything to 100%, and save as an image.  The save image dialogue also lets you specify dpi.

Thank you for the super thorough answer, I love meeting someone else who uses and succeeds with Diptrace (nothing against Eagle). Is the library you ported to Diptrace online somewhere? I forget what library I am using, but I believe I got it from this forum in some capacity. I will definitely try the rest of what you said, seems easy enough.

[wgc]

No problem!  I can send you the libraries I ported, pm me.  FWIW I actually need to update them for the 2017 mb stuff. 

Nothing against eagle here either, I just found diptrace a little easier for me.

Also, I forgot to add this- The preview image should give enough info to get your holes in the right place. 

But, if you want it to look more like the MB templates, you can take the image you save from the preview, and use a layered photo editor (photoshop, paint.net, etc) to make a clean overlay.  Then hide your original layer and export. 

Just watch out for resolution/scale changes.  I try to keep everything at 300dpi for consistency.

This same approach also offers an easy way to get your graphics to line up a little better if you're doing any etching or decals.