suggest new feature: Arc-shaped Edge Plating #pcb-manufacture
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On Wed, 2022-04-27 at 22:56 -0700, wu.weikang via groups.io wrote:
May be I have misunderstood your question, but arcs can be placed in the Edge Cuts layer, which defines how the PCB outline is routed. This is also how you might puts slots and other kinds of cutouts within the PCB. For internal arcs, remember to check with your PCB manufacturer what cutter sizes they use. -- Regards, Tony |
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I'm a bit unclear on what you are asking for.? Plating is done in holes on a PCB rather than edges.? There's no special information in the Gerber files to indicate plating.? That is done in a separate drawing and likely a data file, not entirely sure.? If you want to plate an edge, that is something you would need to discuss with your PCB fab house, I think.? They would need to construct the board with a routed hole where you want the plating, then do a second route to separate the "extra" PCB material leaving a plated edge.
Unless I am wrong about this.? Can any explain how plating an edge of a PCB would be communicated to the fab house?? -- Rick Collins ? - Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging ? - Tesla referral code - |
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On Thu, 2022-04-28 at 07:51 -0700, Rick Collins wrote:
Edge plating is a common enough feature. I would think generally, you would need to make a manufacturing drawing with your requirements detailed in notes. KiCad has plenty of suitable technical layers in which to construct such a drawing. Other notes on this drawing would include your required stackup and laminate specification, surface finish etc., together with any panelisation and board edge break-out routing you may want. My regular board makers have this to say about it: The Eurocircuits website also includes a sophisticated data editor in the front end where you can directly add features like this and internal slots/cut-outs etc. Other fabricators may offer similar facilities. Otherwise, you're back to a regular manufacturing drawing. This could either be on a suitable Gerber layer or supplied as a PDF. These things normally add a day or two to the delivery for each party to understand and agree by way of email on what's to made. -- Regards, Tony |
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The part I don't get is how they control where the plating starts and stops.? Looking at the image in your link, it shows what appears to be a cut out in the board edge.? The plating is not on the entire edge, but stops at a point.? I can discern no feature that controls this stopping point.? It is possible this point is defined after the plating by the final routing step cutting away the plating beyond this point.? The image is not clear enough to tell.?
-- Rick Collins ? - Get 1,000 miles of free Supercharging ? - Tesla referral code - |
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When I do such a thing, I have to make a fab drawing and just call it out as something like "edge plated". Sometimes things are just not easy to convey just via the gerbers, so you need the fab drawing to act as the actual binding contract to what needs to be done.? On Thu, Apr 28, 2022, 2:49 AM wu.weikang via <wu.weikang=@groups.io> wrote:
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On Sun, 2022-05-01 at 07:56 -0700, Rick Collins wrote:
I don't know all the details, either. But most PCB fabricators that I know of don't use your Gerber and Excellon files as-is - for a start, they add their production numbers to the silkscreen layer and usually tweak the copper layers to compensate for their processes - undercutting etc.. The drill holes are also not what the designer thinks they are either - sizes are adapted to what drills the fab actually has, and compensated for plating thickness etc.. There is quite a lot of back-end work that the PCB designer never sees and normally doesn't need to know about. -- Regards, Tony |
Tony Casey
Rick Collins
