Diptrace Tutorial: Export & Order

Find out how to prepare your circuit board for manufacture in Diptrace with this video tutorial.

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Closed Caption:

okay we've laid out the board and in the
tutorial before that we did the
schematic
now it's time to gather everything up
and send it on to the board house for
manufacturing
we don't send the board house this at
dot dept file
we take the file and we exported as
gerber's which are a production file
format
and that's what the board houses can be
used actually manufacture this board so
what is a grubber
a group or number one is several file
sets the first confusing thing about it
you take all those files and you septem
together into a single archive
when you send it over to quote each file
here just to find a single layer on your
circuit board
so you have one Kerber that defines the
soak screen liar
you have another gerbera that defines
the top copper layer
you have another Gerber that defines the
bottom copper layer if you have
copper on the bottom side so on and so
forth and a gerber is a very dumb file
all it has is s definition of a couple
simple shapes called
apertures usually like a circle and a
rectangle
I there can be fancier apertures but
that's typically what used
and a at definition of where those
simple shapes
occur on your a circuit board
the gerber doesn't even know what at the
shape
is whether it belongs on Assoc screen or
copper or anything else
the way you're the find that for the
board houses just in the name
have each of those gerber's depress
makes it super easy to export the Gerber
so we'll do that now
you go file export
Kerber and this is the Gerber
export at menu
and each of the layers have been working
on
is right here for export and we can
change the properties as we export them
first of
let's define apertures like I said each
Gerber file
has a set of simple shapes also known as
apertures
and at the definitions or or where they
appear
in each of those layers so we'll just to
find the Gerber see it on the Cerberus
right there in your state auto and you
can actually see shapes there's an
eclipse
a rectangle an overall and goes on
now the afters are defined
at we can export all these layers by
dissing export of
we don't need of these layers stuff
residents to stop assembly layer
how we can keep it for ourselves sweet
we don't need to send that to the poor
house they don't do anything with it
the top silkscreen layer if you're bored
doesn't have a silk screen then you
don't need to export the Slayer
if it does then you have export more to
do that now
Mia you do it here actually so make a
folder called gerber's
and I'll call this
make it as easy as possible for the
board has topped so
now these silkscreen layer the top so
claire's exported
and before you export you can also
preview and to see what it looks like
this is exactly what's gonna print on
your circuit board when it gets
manufactured
at the top
a solder mask again if you're bored as
naps are masculine exported you can but
they're bored house
won't do anything with it and export cop
cop masked
the top paste the pace layer is
I are the apertures for a
solder stansel for silkscreen I'm sorry
for a a
solder paste ansel if you're only doing
through all parts
you won't have anything on the top a
slayer and
if I click Preview can see there's
nothing there so I need expert that
the top copper layer this is the
wiring export that
top copper
same thing will do with the bottom
at the bottom paste if we had Anne
through our surface map parts on the
bottom
are the board bottom ask if we have a
solder mask the bottom
Sox rent-free have a six-round bond
that's pretty uncommon
and then the board outlined this is just
shaper the board and board itself this
is the
really just the inverse the outline
would explore my is quite close one more
thing you got to export
are the drill files the and Seadrill
here
at the this file it's different than a
gerber doesn't define polygons are
shapes
it just to find spots on the board where
drill should go through and
and put a whole and it defies a property
to the whole weather should be played or
not played it like a mounting hole and
you define it
the tools here to set auto and a state
if you wanna see if you can a preview
and that's that's the deirdre holes
at click Export and is called real
once all exported you gather them all up
and set them into a single archive
and then you've collected all your purse
save collected the Gerbers in the draw
pile and now it's time to send them onto
the board house
before they get started though they need
to know couple things
first they're going to want to know what
kinda material what you'd like the board
to be made out of
the most common material is called fr4
it's a fiberglass epoxy resin has a
natural
kinda no yellow color then they're going
to want to know how thick
aboard you want how thick like this
at the most common thickness is 62 Mills
4.06 to mentions other thicknesses are
available
but this is by far the most common
then they're going to want to know is
how many sides or how many layers it is
this here's a tool airport their traces
on one layer
near traces and the copper on the other
layer on the other side as well
you can do more complex designs that use
a sandwich
multilayer 46 eight players
but most boards are one or two layers
probably most are too
and if you try and save a few bucks you
can do one layer design
this is one where there's nothing on
this side and the circuit
is all on the side crossing in 10 if you
want to do a solder mask
and thats a a colored I
a a crime it's actually a a plastic
resin
that they print over the board I to keep
I saw her from
flowing between the I'm traces
you can choose different colors this is
a white one
I here's blues another color cream is
the most common color that's usually the
most inexpensive
red is another color black and you can
also do no solder mask which
it's a little bit cheaper and maybe for
the design you're intending
maybe requirement same thing with the
silkscreen that's this Sat printed text
on top right there you can do different
colors
you can do it on both sides you can also
do I know silkscreen could like
you're also going out wanna tell them
what kinda finish plating
so at the these are copper traces but
their silver because
the copper has actually at
solder on top of it she can chew solder
or gold
I Nicole at
carbon Inc you can do all kinds of
different things most common
is H ASL for hot air
solder level and you can do it lead
solder or a lead-free solder
I she called from time to time to look
nice and depending on your specific
requirement
you may use that
and finally your if you do and I surface
mount design you may need to get a
stencil
this is a mile or are capped on stansel
I got from o'hara p
they're pretty expensive to do in
prototyping by 25 bucks
and the stencils actually defined in the
Gerber you're not going to get
the stansel from the board manufacturer
you gonna take the stencil were paced
Gerber and send that to you
the stencil maker at Polo Blue
makes them I've used to o'hara p and
they're fairly inexpensive this once 25
bucks
you wanna stainless steel stencil and
that they run
you know 102 to three hundred dollars
depending on the pitch have your
components you may or may not want to
get a stainless steel stencil
you have to if it's a very II tight
pitch component
and thats that's basically it was the
most important things you want done if I
when you're ordering airports I one more
is the thickness of the copper traces
so how high of the board for the copper
traces go
most common is one inch I'm sorry I a
one-ounce
thickness