Gerber File Formats and Uses
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Gerber Files and Uses
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| Gerber Top Layer |
This layer is also referred to as the component side
of the board. The component layer is the board side
where the majority of through hole parts would be
inserted.
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| Gerber Bottom Layer |
This layer is also referred to as the solder side of
the board. The solder layer is the board side where
the majority of the parts will have the leads attached
by a soldering iron.
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| Gerber Mechanical Layer |
This layer is used by many cad systems to show the
mechanical characteristics of a design. It always
includes the physical outline of the board and often
shows the drill locations with symbols as a visual
guide.
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| Gerber Drill Drawing |
Similar in nature to the Mechanical layer. Its
primary use is to provide a visual aid for hole
locations. Some cad programs like Orcad and Pads
PCB will create two drill files, one for plated
holes and another for non-plated holes. Much of
this depends on your settings. The drill
drawing usually shows all of the holes and if it is
included along with your other data we can usually
add the non-plated locations to your NC file based
on the drill drawing information. To prevent your
CAD program from creating one file for plated holes
and another for non-plated holes, look for a setting
that includes all hole locations regardless of their
use and turn it on.
Please note: the drill drawing is not a substitute
for an NC drill file. It is only a visual guide,
used for augmenting the NC data, not to replace it.
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| Gerber Component Mask |
This layer contains the part outlines and numbers U1, J4,
R2, C3 etc.
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| Gerber Solder Mask |
This layer contains a copy of all pads that require
soldering. The main purpose of masking is to prevent
solder bridging of pads and traces during mass
production. There is also an esthetic value to
consider. When using surface mount devices it
is often necessary to provide a solder mask layer
for both the Top and Bottom of the board as there
will be differences in pad locations between sides
where SMT devices have been added. In the graphic
for this example the white space would be where the
mask ink, dry film or liquid photo image-able (LPI)
material would remain. The brown areas would be left
as exposed metal.
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| Gerber Composite
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This graphic file is a very simple example of layer orientation
and text placement. Don't for get to mirror the text on the
bottom layer when working with a through board view.
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