CAM & Design Info
CAM, Engineering, Tooling. What ever you want to call it, every job must pass through it before it hits the factory. This is the stage when the customer design file is turned into manufacturing data such as phototools, drill files, rout files etc. Despite some common misconceptions in the industry, PCBs are actually manufactured from Gerber & NC Drill data that is extracted from the design files, not the design files themselves.
We offer two levels of CAM service: Plot & Go or Full Service. In Plot & Go, we do not check your design file for manufacturability, we simply extract Gerbers if required, step & repeat or panelise as required, plot artwork and generate machine files. This service is only available on jobs where a single design file is submitted. Full Service includes checking your design for manufacturability, file merging as well as step & repeat, panelisation, plotting & machine file generation. Since every job is unique, from different designers, using different software, for different purposes, we can not check for fit for purpose or verify any other circuit or electrical properties of your design.
Typically, the CAM procedure is:
- Extract Gerber data from supplied design file
- Import and verify Gerber data, matching drill file information to pads
- Disseminate mechanical information such as board shape, cutouts, special requirements
- Check design for acceptable minumums - ie track width, track spacing, pad to hole spacing, mask clearances, internal clearances, etc (Only on Full Service)
- Perform data rotations, duplication, panelisation for loading.
- Step-and-repeat within the area of our usable panel
- Apply our standard tooling holes, borders, handling areas etc for manufacture
- Generate applicable machine files such as drill, rout, legend print as well as physical artworks
- Complete all paperwork including transfer of customer requirements to internal specification sheets
- Submit completed package to production for review and issue to factory
This process can take anywhere from 15 minutes to 2 hours depending on the complexity of the job at hand.
We accept files from the following design packages: Protel for Windows, Protel98, Protel99 SE, ProtelDXP, Altium 6.9 & Eagle. The new Altium Summer ‘08 platform is not supported - customers will be required to extract & submit the Gerber data (274-X in 2:4 trailing, Imperial) & NC Drill files.