I have a small non-rectangular board. How do I most clearly define the outer borders of a non-rectangular border?
On the first proto PCB I ordered, I left the board files to show a rectangular board, then simply modified the physical PC board after I received it. That’s ok for one or two boards, but I don’t want to do that for 50+ boards!
Before I order a second pair of proto PCBs, I would like to add some definition to the Gerber files in order to show the desired board shape. I have read various methods, which all seem somewhat “flexible”; there doesn’t seem to be a written-in-stone preferred method, so now I’m asking…
What is the preferred method, in the eyes of either the Gold Phoenix people, or the BatchPCB people, of defining the outer borders of a non-square or non-rectangular PC border?
A specific layer? Is an embedded border in the silk layer ok? ???
What I was planning to do was submit the board, with the outer dimension shown on the upper silkscreen layer - the board outline has a modified width of zero rather than the minimum width of 8mil. I’m hoping this will be clearly interpreted as the board’s outer dimension. I have truncated all of the silkscreen data that would normally overhang the board, so that should be pretty clear as well.
510rob:
What I was planning to do was submit the board, with the outer dimension shown on the upper silkscreen layer - the board outline has a modified width of zero rather than the minimum width of 8mil. I’m hoping this will be clearly interpreted as the board’s outer dimension. I have truncated all of the silkscreen data that would normally overhang the board, so that should be pretty clear as well.
The only people you need to satisfy are at BatchPCB.
Give them a shot by uploading your design, and
sending an email for clarification (in that order).
Making objects in gerbers “zero width” is dangerous,
you certainly don’t want to receive a bad PCB one
month from now.
The BatchPCB CADCAM job script uses the data on
layer 20 to create the gerbers that in turn are used
by BatchPCB for area calculation. When you get the
BatchPCB bot results (by automatic email) you can
readily see if the design is to your expectations by
I also have a board with a non-rectangular edge and components with silkscreens that hang off the edge. I just wanted to confirm that if I include an edge layer that it will override the larger bounding box on the silkscreen layer? (If this is the case, you might want to make this explicit in the FAQ).
Often one will have connectors or sockets that hang off the board, especially if they are meant to be external connections. The full physical outline of the connector will be on the silk screen layer because you need it to make sure it won’t run into anything and is positioned correctly. Not having to manually trim these outlines is nice.
I have experimented with a couple of designs here and unfortunately you will have to trim them. It’s a bit irritating when there is an explicit pcb edge layer. I’m hoping BatchPCB will update their board size calculator to use the edge layer.
I have experimented with a couple of designs here and unfortunately you will have to trim them. It’s a bit irritating when there is an explicit pcb edge layer. I’m hoping BatchPCB will update their board size calculator to use the edge layer.
I definitely second this. As you note, connector silkscreens will often overhang the layer-20 dimension border. Having to trim them by hand is a major pain. Since the SFE cam job copies the dimension to the top copper layer, seems like they should just use that.