Wow! There is an extremely powerful option available for PCB designers in the 16.6 - 2015 Allegro PCB Editor release—the Allegro PCB Designer Manufacturing Option. This option is integrated into the Allegro PCB Editor.
As you’ll read in our “What’s New” section, “The Allegro PCB Designer Manufacturing Option is a comprehensive, powerful, easy-to-use suite of tools that makes it efficient for PCB designers to streamline the development of release-to-manufacturing packages for their products. It includes three modules: Design for Manufacturing (DFM) Checker, Documentation Editor, and Panel Editor.”
DFM Checker
Allegro PCB Designer Manufacturing Option’s DFM Checker module is a suite of manufacturing analysis tools that helps engineers and designers ensure no fabrication-related issues are present before sending the design off for fabrication, thereby helping to avoiding fabrication-related delays, additional costs, and re-work. You will catch violations before releasing to manufacturing.
- You can consider the various analysis capabilities as a “second set of eyes” for fabrication checks. It includes IPC-2581 standard checking, multiple rules check options, and rules by group (streams).
- You can import physical and region constraint values and manufacturers rule sets templates and setup default physical check values.
- The checks can be run in the background—Allegro PCB Editor and Documentation Editor can be used while checks are running!
- In the results review form, any resulting violations are listed by check category and you can crossprobe the violations between the violations list and Allegro PCB Editor:
Documentation Editor
Allegro PCB Designer Manufacturing Option’s Documentation Editor module is a PCB documentation-authoring tool that intelligently automates your documentation creation process to produce complex PCB documentation in a fraction of the time versus traditional methods. Documentation Editor enables you to quickly create the manufacturing drawings that drive PCB fabrication and assembly. It provides customizable templates and scripting capabilities.
- Document types generated include Fabrication, Assembly, and Custom document.
- There is a page setup where you specify standard document sizes as well as a document template that adapts to page sizes.
- The template library includes Legends, Notes, and Details.
- The data import contains Drill Legend, Stack-up, and Assembly BOM.
- Dimensioning capabilities for Linear, Datum, Tolerance, Dual Inch/mm values.
- Drawing details provide Detail magnification tools and Detail templates
- Some of the export options are BOM export (.csv list, and .txt file), Placement Coordinate List, PDF Document, and DXF Export.
Panel Editor
Allegro PCB Designer Manufacturing Option’s Panel Editor module intelligently automates the complex process of panel definition and documentation, simplifying the design process. This solution enables designers to quickly create electronic manufacturing documents that clearly articulate the panel specification and instructions for successful fabrication, assembly, and inspection of their designs.
- Assembly Panel Creation generates the assembly panel size and calculates the layup.
- Panel tooling definition quickly defines milling definition panel pinning holes and panel detail
- Panel documentation includes the drawing details, notes and a drill/assembly legend.
- You can export a .pdf document and a .dxf file.
I look forward to your feedback!
Jerry “GenPart” Grzenia