V-Cut or Panelizer

Panelized PCB’s using the -p feature

A panelized pcb, is possibile with the -p command. BUT only does a panel that can be v-scored like this. See fritzing command line options for info

rAtTrax-ratshield2560-mainboard example

Quoted from el-j on github

the panelizer feature is in a very experimental status. there are at least 2 different steps to use it.
and a bit of preparation before.

first of all you need a folder structure like:
folder/orders
folder/products

put the fzz’s in a subfolder of the “orders” folder. this is your working directory. now you need an xml file with all the sketchs from the working-folder. the xml file has to sit in the same folder like the fzz’s and have to look like:
…/…/products

panel c1 is the amount of costs for the first panel, c2 for the copy of the panel

the board members are the fzz-files sitting in your working folder. they can have a required count or an optional count. the priority is for the optional boards and how important they are

now you can use the inscriber. therefore you start fritzing with the -i option. (i for inscribe)
there are two more optional options: -nm (no message) and -drc (for an automatic drc check of the boards)

-i -nm “path to your panelizer.xml” -drc

after the inscriber checked all the files, it creates a copies folder, to save the original files. and it gives you an output text-file which fzz-files has failures. so now you can fix the failures. when you change anything in a sketch you have to inscribe again.

after that you can start the panelizer. therefor use the option -p (panelize) or -pc (panelize custom)
the pc option looks for sketches with custom created parts because they are often the reason for a bad gerber output. so, start fritzing with this option will begin the process:

-p “path to your panelizer.xml”

after the panelizer is done, you will have a gerber-folder in your working directory and a message from fritzing that the job is done.
---------- github end

I don’t like using the -i (inscribe) feature as it does copper filling for you.

BUT in short I have NOT done any proper write-up for this feature. Anyone can experiment with the -p and see what’s what. I’ve been so busy with crazy life, I’m on limited time constants at the moment. I’m sorry this wasn’t more helpful. There might be some other hints-to-use on github.

I will be playing around with this again in the coming months when I get some new panels done. @ that time I will document what I do and add it here. ANYONE in the meantime playing around with the panelizer feature -p and find helpful instructions, YOU are more then welcome to post those here to help anyone else that may be playing around.