Export

File → Export Fabrication Files… opens one dialog over the whole fabrication package. There is no per-format submenu, because a device’s files are registered against each other and described together — the package is the unit you hand a shop.

The center of the dialog is the list of files it would write. That list is rebuilt from the design as it stands, continuously while the dialog is open, and the Export button writes exactly the list you are reading.

Its settings — what is ticked, the version, the folder, the name — are per-export choices rather than preferences. They are seeded from the document each time the dialog opens — every deliverable that can actually be written ticked, the design’s own folder, the file’s name as the base — and go away when it closes.

The export dialog: one process block listing the two mask files it would write, over the DXF version, folder and base name

The target line

Stack: default, at the right under the heading: which stack these files fabricate. It is the active stack, so what export writes is what the viewport shows.

A process block

One block per process forming a layer of this stack, headed with its name and the layers it forms — default · layers 1–3. A stack whose layers all inherit one process has exactly one block.

Inside it is a checkbox per deliverable that process publishes, each with the files it would write listed underneath, grouped by layer, and the file format at the right of the row. The names follow one pattern: chip-layer2-mask50.dxf — the base name, the layer counted from 1, and what the file is. A mask set gives one file per distinct depth in a layer; cut contours give one per sheet.

A file already sitting in the folder is marked overwrite on its row. There is no second confirmation behind it: the list is the confirmation.

Two absences are stated rather than hidden. A deliverable this build cannot write yet keeps its row, disabled and marked not exported yet — the process really does hand that artifact out. A process that publishes nothing gets its block anyway and says so, because a grayed row cannot tell you which case you are in.

The line closing each block is that process’s compensation: whether it is characterized, and at what scale. It is a statement, not an option — the on-screen twin of the sentence the files themselves carry. It sits inside the block because compensation belongs to the process, and one line over a stack where only some layers are corrected would be exactly the wrong claim.

A layer carrying blind features on both of its faces is not exported yet, and says so in warning color under the blocks: Layer 2: blind features on both faces are not exported yet.

The package statements

No files: names the layers the package leaves without one, and why each is silent — No files: layers 1–2 — nothing ticked for 'default'. The reasons are worth keeping apart: a process that publishes nothing, an artifact that cannot be written yet, and a deliverable you unticked are three different facts, and only the last is a decision. A featureless slab is not listed at all; a blank lid producing no file is the right answer rather than a gap.

When the folder holds leftovers from an earlier export of this package — a mask for a deliverable since unticked, a depth since changed — they are listed under a warning line, with one checkbox, Move into superseded/, governing the lot. It is ticked by default, which is safe for the two reasons the block provides: you see the list before it acts, and nothing is deleted — each file moves one folder down, so a misidentified one costs a drag back.

Version, folder and name

DXF version is R2000 or R12. The line under it states the units the files are in, and it changes with the version: R2000 files state their own units and the line repeats it, while R12 has no way to say so in the file, which makes that line the only statement and confirm with your shop worth doing.

Folder shows where the package goes, with Browse… for your system’s folder picker. Base is the file-name stem every name in the list is built from, committed on Enter or focus loss — change it and the whole list renames in front of you.

Outstanding problems

A design with open design-rule findings still exports. The dialog states the count in warning color — 2 DRC errors outstanding, the same findings the Problems zone lists — and does nothing else about it: shops accept files with open questions, and refusing to write what the viewport happily shows would be the tool overruling you. A clean report shows no line at all.

The Export button

The button carries what it will do — Export 5 files · set aside 3 — and is enabled while there is either a file to write or a leftover to move. With nothing ticked and a clean folder it is disabled.

A completed export closes the dialog and leaves a note on the status bar saying how many files went where. Nothing pops up to be dismissed; the files are the result.

A failed write keeps the dialog open behind the file-error report, so you can point it at another folder and try again without setting the whole thing up a second time. A leftover the tidy-up could not move is reported in that same status note rather than as a failure — the package was written, and only the tidy-up fell short.

Cancel, Esc, or a click outside the dialog closes it without writing anything.

Experiware Guide