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Image Importer

Nick Poole edited this page Apr 15, 2018 · 20 revisions

Getting Started

The Buzzard Image Importer is designed to serve both the practical purpose of silkscreen logo creation as well as the artistic purpose of "PCB Painting," or composing an image using a combination of the mask, silk and copper layers of the PCB. In theory, it could also be used to import complex geometries to the copper layer for applications such as RF design.

When you open the Image Importer, you'll find a preview pane on the left side that looks like a piece of bare FR-4. You may notice the faint "BUZZARD" stamps on the canvas, this is not a watermark and will not appear on your converted image. It's intended as a visual cue to the fact that there is no solder-mask present. On the right side are a series of controls labeled for each of the three configurable layers.

Image Importer Interface showing a preview canvas on the left and some form fields on the right

Basic Silkscreen Import

To begin, choose the image file that you want to import. The tool should support any image type that your browser will render into a canvas object including JPG, GIF, BMP, PNG, SVG and more. After you've selected your file, nothing will appear in the preview pane until you've chosen a layer to render. Since we're importing to the silkscreen layer, check the "Render" box under the silkscreen controls. You should notice that your image is now in the preview pane. By default, Buzzard will render the silkscreen layer in white and the soldermask layer in black. You can change both of these by clicking on the color select boxes under each control. Note, however, that this feature is intended for preview only and has no effect on the color of the manufactured product, which will depend on the capabilities of your fab-house.

If you choose to render only the silkscreen layer, Buzzard will change the background to emulate the look of your silkscreen on top of soldermask. Because silkscreen is a single color process, your image has been reduced to a single color using a threshold function. You can adjust the sensitivity of the threshold function using the slider under the silkscreen controls until your image looks the way you intend.


Buzzard EAGLE Tools


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