58 The PCB Design Magazine • July 2015
by karel Tavernier
uCaMCo
It is clearly possible to fabricate PCBs from the
fabrication data sets currently being used—it's
being done innumerable times every day all over
the globe. But is it being done in an efficient, re-
liable, automated and standardized manner? At
this moment in time, the honest answer is no,
because there is plenty of room for improvement
in the way in which PCB fabrication data is cur-
rently transferred from design to fabrication.
This is not about the format, which for over
90% of the world's PCB production is Gerber:
There are very rarely problems with Gerber files
themselves. They allow images to be transferred
without a hitch. In fact, the Gerber format is
part of the solution, given that it is the most re-
liable option in this field. The problems actual-
ly lie in which images are transferred, how the
format is used and—more often—in how it is
not used.
In this monthly column, Karel Tavernier
explains in detail how to use the newly revised
Gerber data format to communicate with your
fabrication partners clearly and simply, using an
unequivocal yet versatile language that enables
you and them to get the very best out of your
design data. Each month we will look at a dif-
ferent aspect of the design-to-fabrication data
transfer process.
This column has been excerpted from the guide,
PCB Fabrication Data: Design-to-Fabrication Data
Transfer.
Chapter 1: How PCB Design Data
is used by the Fabricator
In this first article of the series, we'll be lo-
oking at what happens to the designer's data
once it reaches the fabricator. This is not just a
nice add-on, because for designers to construct
truly valid PCB data sets, they must have a clear
understanding of how their data is used. This,
more than anything else, clarifies how it should
be prepared.
We will not look at how to design PCBs for
easy fabrication, which is completely outside
the remit of the developer of the Gerber format
and a matter for the PCB fabricators themselves.
the Gerber Guide
article
