Gerber outline for panelized board

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kimmoli
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Joined: Sat May 21, 2022 2:41 pm

Gerber outline for panelized board

Post by kimmoli »

We have panel drawing included in the outline gerber file, which contains multiple board outlines and the panel outline.
2022-05-25_15-45-50.jpg
2022-05-25_15-45-50.jpg (103.16 KiB) Viewed 11886 times
Now in ZofzPCB, only the panel, and one PCB outline is shown. Expected that all four are shown.
2022-05-25_15-48-15.jpg
2022-05-25_15-48-15.jpg (50.84 KiB) Viewed 11886 times
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Zofz
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Re: Gerber outline for panelized board

Post by Zofz »

The board outline is more or less an abstract drawing.
Here, it is abstract because it does not show break-out tabs ;)
One can say that the drawing represents five boards.
The green drawing will show just a single board if you add the break-out tabs.

or easier: you can change the way of interpreting the drawing:

Image
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kimmoli
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Re: Gerber outline for panelized board

Post by kimmoli »

Ok, thanks.
It seems to remember that setting over sessions.
(Was already looking how to tell that through rules)

And the breakout tabs are done a bit differently. In actual design the outline is just the single board outline. Panel parts are on separate layer which is combined to the gerber output (this way it is easy to make single-pcb prototypes or modify the panel section separately from the outline.

Breakouts are just a non-plated drills
2022-05-26_09-22-48.jpg
2022-05-26_09-22-48.jpg (8.95 KiB) Viewed 11878 times
Just noticed the drill does not drill outline line

Result for reference:
IMG_0007.jpg
IMG_0007.jpg (22.04 KiB) Viewed 11878 times
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Zofz
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Re: Gerber outline for panelized board

Post by Zofz »

In case anyone is looking for a hint in this thread:

The question is how far the CAD designer goes in the direction of CAM-ready data. Usually, panelization is the job of a CAM engineer, and you can point out what you need.
But for the ZofzPCB, the board outline must be explicit to be displayed correctly.

For example, see the pictures. This project contains three boards fabricated and assembled as one. The factory can add an additional panelization step as they see optimal. Penalization is needed if components are too close to the chosen two edges, used as traction grip in the assembly process. This can be just two break-out stripes, keeping a single board per panel. But in a case of very high production volume, or when the single board is small, placing multiple boards on a single panel makes sense.

Image

Image

Note:
You can see a text in the right bottom corner of the Gerber drawing. This creates two additional outlines, as the letter "P" and digit "0" are closed loops of tracks. Therefore there are some settings (shown in the post above) to avoid interpreting text and symbols (like a frame) as part of the PCB.
Alan-M
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Joined: Tue May 10, 2022 7:13 am

Re: Gerber outline for panelized board

Post by Alan-M »

CAD/CAM makes no difference when you are a one man design department. Because I produce all the manufacture data I panel up my boards as "camera ready" to make sure they match the pick and place data and the paste screen. It is not as though I am a control freak, it just has to all match to be right. And don't get me started on AOI.
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