Unlike Altium the old MacPC application has a separate layer for copper pours / power planes and it is necessary to combine two images to produce a single layer that can be used for fabrication. Typically the “main” layer will be in the low “T” title numbers i.e. T1 to T9 with the copper / plane images occurring after the main layers (copper, resist, paste & legend) i.e. T10 to T13.

The following steps (based on the combined Camtastic file) uses layers T2 & T10 to illustrate the merging process and will need to be repeated for each main / copper layer pair.

As the copper / plane layers are an inverse image (coloured areas indicate where copper is not present) it is first necessary to create a layer that inverts the existing T10 layer:-

1.Select Edit – Composite Layers – Build Composite.

2. Enter a new layer name of “T10N” and specify Negative Polarity.

3. Set the 1^st layer to be T10 and the polarity to “clear” then select OK.

4. The result should be a new layer with the coloured area denoting where copper will be present.

5. Repeat steps 1-4 for each of the copper / plane layers.

It is now possible to create the final merged layers:-

6. Select Edit – Composite Layers – Build Composite.

7. Enter a new layer name of “T10N T2” and specify Negative Polarity.

8. Set the 1^st layer to be T10N and the polarity to “dark”. Note it is critical that the copper / plane layer is listed before the main layer as the order will influence the merged result.

9. Set the 2^nd layer to be T2 and the polarity to “dark” then select OK.

10. The result should be a new layer with the T10N and T2 layers combined.

11. Repeat steps 6-10 for each of the layer pairs.

12. In order to make the layers easily identifiable they should be renamed and the standard Altium file extensions added. To do this right click the target layer in the Cam Editor sidebar then select rename. This should be repeated for each layer required to manufacture the PCB, for example it is not necessary to rename the separate main or copper / plane layers as they will not be used.

13. Once the layers are all correctly named they should be exported (File – Export – Gerber) and backed up to the Gerber files server.