Design to Manufacturing
Contents
Completing the Schematic Design and PCB layout is only the first part of the process that culminates in the fabrication and assembly of your PCB. The link between your design and the finished board are the Schematic and PCB Prints, Gerber and NC Drill fabrication files, as well as the Bill of Materials (BOM), Test Point Report, and Pick and Place Assembly files.
If you intend to use the services of a plotting bureau or PCB manufacturer, take the time to consult with them before you start generating artwork. Bureaus and manufacturers often have specific requirements that must be reflected in the files or artwork that you submit.
In some instances, the fabrication facility will prefer to work directly with "raw" Gerber files (or even PCB files) rather than panelized Gerbers. Understanding these requirements will help you to plan the entire design process for efficient and trouble-free completion.
The OutputJob Editor is a central location for you to configure and save your publication outputs. You can choose to publish selected outputs to PDF, print selected outputs or generate files and add them to your project. The same Outjob can have any number of publications configured, ready for re-use every time you update your project.
The following sections detail the function of Altium Designer's OutputJob Editor and how you can finalize your design process.
Figure 1. The OutputJob Editor.
The Function of the OutputJob Editor
The OutputJob Editor allows you to define and manage Output Job Configuration files (*.OutJob). The purpose of the OutputJob Editor is to provide a means to process source documents, allowing you to extract a specific set of information for your project. Each OutJob file created in the Editor has the potential to contain any number of purpose driven outputs.
Choose from Assembly, Documentation, Fabrication, Netlist and Reports outputs. Each output can be configured individually, exactly as you require all in the one convenient and portable document. You can choose to create multiple OutJob files in one project, for example, to separate assembly-based output from fabrication-based output or you can configure one OutJob file to suit all of your needs.
Link your outputs to a chosen Output Media such as Print, PDF or File Generation. Each OutJob can have a number of Output Media to suit your publishing needs.
Given their portable nature, an OutJob file can be defined once and used in multiple projects so you can use your favorite output configurations quickly and easily, removing the need to set up individual outputs repeatedly.
The Output Job File has an Output Media column, which can be configured to print, publish to PDF, Publish to Web and/or generate any number of your output generators.
Supported Output Generators
Supported Output Media
- File Generation