I am just curious, is there some kind of upload check between BatchPCB and your fab, to verify the data sent to them isn’t corrupted in the transfer?
I don’t care what kind of file check it is, is there one?
I don’t work for sparkfun, but I doubt there would be. That said; I’ve never worked with a PCB manufacturer that does that.
–David Carne
So there is a possibility of a whim of a chance, the issue with my last project was caused by a corrupted file transfer somewhere… :roll:
And I go threw the trouble of thoroughly examining each layer preview when I upload zipped gerbers. (Is that microscopic bluish blur really in the right spot, “O” that a plated threw hole) :oops:
silly me.
File transfers are pretty reliable these days. The protocols used for most communication over the Internet ensure this. Things like CRCs are built in. MD5’s are still used explicitly sometimes, but this is mainly to prevent intentional malicious tampering, not corruption.
Furthermore, if the data is compressed before being transferred (I don’t know if it is), there’s even less likelihood that file corruption would go unnoticed. Corruption would either be detected at decompression, or the extracted file(s) would be obviously wrong from a quick spot check.
In short, file corruption isn’t worth worrying about. Design and fab errors are both far more likely.
After we panelize the designs and extract the Gerber files, we re-check them using Viewplot. Then they are sent out to the manufacturer.