Vector logotype for silk screen layers

[shadewind]

I've seen people using company logotypes and similar vector images for PCBs. How can I add this to an Altium Designer PCB document?

[Psi]

There probably is a way to add a picture directly but i cant say ive seen it.

Ya could convert a vector image into a true type font, since altium designer lets you add text in any font to your pcb.

Its also possible they are doing it to the gerbers files afterwards

[armandas]

You can convert a bitmap to a shape using a script: DXP -> Run Script. Then browse

Code: [Select]

Altium Designer\Examples\Scripts\Delphiscript Scripts\Pcb\PCB Logo Creatorand run it.

[mkissin]

The easiest way that I've seen (and the way I do it) is to create a 2-bit *.bmp file.

Note, it's very important that the file is actually 2-bit. Many programs will tell you that the file is 2-bit and then go ahead and save it in a higher bit format. Irfanview is one program that will actually respect your format.

Once you have that file, you can open it in Windows Paint (again, this is fairly important), CTRL-A, CTRL-C

Then in altium designer, select the layer you want to paste the image onto, and paste. You can paste onto overlay, copper, or any other layer type. Any pixels  that were black in the bitmap will come out as filled. White pixels will be empty.

Once your image has been pasted in, you can turn it into a union and resize it as you like.

[shadewind]

I found another way as well. You can export as DWG or DXF from Adobe Illustrator and you can then import that into Altium. You have to fiddle a bit with the export settings in Illustrator and the import settings in Alitum but it does work reasonably well if you make sure you don't have any non-outlined fonts.

[zeke]

The easiest method I've found is this:

- open up microsoft word,
- paste your image into a blank document,
- copy that image with ctrl-c,
- open up your pcb file in altium and
- paste it into the silkscreen layer.

It works for me.

[dfnr2]

I found another way as well. You can export as DWG or DXF from Adobe Illustrator and you can then import that into Altium. You have to fiddle a bit with the export settings in Illustrator and the import settings in Alitum but it does work reasonably well if you make sure you don't have any non-outlined fonts.

Hi Shadewind,

Could you elaborate on what settings you need to change in Illustrator and Altium to get this to work?  Last week I tried to import a DXF logo without success, but I do have Illustrator available, and would like to make it work.  For my work last week, I finally imported a bitmap by cut/paste, and then traced out the regions in Altium, then saved the logo as a snippet.  Not ideal.

Thanks,

Dave

[timorousme]

What's the script for Dave's platypus?