What are Manufacturing Files?

Everything the manufacturer needs to know in order to make your electrical product.

Manufacturing files are my deliverables.   Here is a list of everything you'll need:

• Bill of Materials (a.k.a BOM)

  - A list of all parts, their manufacturer, and the manufacturer's part number.

• Gerber Files

  - The 2D Vector array files for completely describing the printed circuit board in the X and Y directions to a manufacturer.

• Schematic

  - The symbolic definition of all how all components are connected to each other.

• Drill Files

  - Files showing the manufacturer exactly where to drill holes, as well as the diameter of each hole in the PCB.

• Fabrication Notes

  - The physical description of the makeup of the PCB, such as the layer order, the color of the PCB, the thickness, the type of material to use, and more.   This describes the 3rd dimension of the PCB, whereas the Gerber files describe the other two.

• Pick and Place files

  - Files showing the PCB Assembly House where to place each component on the PCB.

• Embedded Software Files (if the project includes software)

  - HEX files are required in embedded systems.   They reside in a programmable device.   The HEX file is the machine language code stored in hexadecimal format that tells the programmable device what to do.

Other files you may receive from us:

3D STEP File or IDF file

Though not necessary for production, we can provide a 3D object file in STEP format or IDF format of the entire PCB.   This can be helpful for your team to do 3D collision testing in software such as Solidworks.   It's also helpful for completing the 3D model for your overall product.

3D color images

The manufacturer doesn't need the image files for production, but it will always allow them to see the end product to help them ensure parts are placed correctly.

These can be especially helpful when components such as connectors can be placed on the board in more than 1 way.