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38 The PCB Magazine • February 2014 sequential lamination techniques, combined with much greater diversity of surface finish re- quirements, have all expanded the problem of CAD/CAM data exchange—taking it even fur- ther away from the scope of traditional formats such as Gerber, Excellon and netlists. Gerber files require a great deal of manual intervention before fabrication-ready process- tooling can be produced. The fabricator must manually examine each file and determine how the layers in the stackup fit. In addition, Gerber files can contain syntax errors or precision errors SMART DATA TRANSFER FORMATS AUTOMATE CAD/CAM continues Figure 1: the traditional data set supplied to fabricators contains many manual steps, each of which can be error prone and induce unnecessary risk into the Pcb manufacturing process. using the intel- ligence of odb++, virtually all steps are processed electronically, producing a low risk, high quality data set that makes fabrication virtually error free, and significantly reduces new product introduction time.