Issue link: https://iconnect007.uberflip.com/i/1509257
40 DESIGN007 MAGAZINE I OCTOBER 2023 In 1972, learned the adage "Measure twice, cut once" from my seventh-grade woodshop teacher, Mr. Fenoglio. To this day, I hear his voice every time I use a pencil to mark a piece of wood that I'm ready to cut. I mark it and then re-measure the edge to which it will join before sawing or drilling. Over time, I've saved a lot of money avoiding costly personal wood- working and building project errors. I wish I could say that my PCB design record over the years was similarly as error free in regard to form, fit, and function. Why didn't I hear Mr. Fenoglio's voice when I was dimen- sioning that CAD drawing? How could I have overlooked that I was draing in a different scale? What about when I imported a "met- ric" DXF outline into my "inches" PCB layout and thought there was still plenty of room to add more circuitry? How about that time I What the Heck? A PCB Tech Spec Check built that card-edge connector library part and reversed the A and B sides? I've lost count of how many times I didn't catch the reversed pin numbering on some of those little three-pin SOT23 transistors. e fact is that effective PCB design and manufacturing is not done sitting alone in a cave. Stakeholders in PCB project develop- ment must have ways of checking each other's work before the chips are cut, so to speak. Printed circuit assemblies contain thousands of geometric points which must successfully interface with unseen "next assemblies" on a worldwide scale in order to fit together cor- rectly while running down the manufacturing conveyors. Designing a PCB form to fit is only part of the project equation. Aer the design is manufactured and assembled, it must perform its function electrically. e characteristics Target Condition Feature Column by Kelly Dack, CIT, CID+