Import

The first step is to import your PCB design. The Import Module reads data in Gerber/Drill or ODB++ format and converts it to a Macaos product. To the extent possible, your data will automatically be interpreted and mapped to the appropriate board layers, and the board's outer contour will be defined. If so, all you will need to do is choose a stackup, surface finish and mask colors, and then save the product.

Prior to publishing, you may also add fiducial marks, graphic symbols, and comments/instructions to the product. The are also several features to help interpret the imported data in cases where the Import Module is unable to do everything automatically.

Panelization

Usually, PCB products that will have automatic component assembly should be panelized for manufacture. Panelization puts one or more products into an array with a frame suitable for the component placement and soldering processes. The Panelization Module can step up a product to a panel with a one-click operation. Select a product in the Product Browser, open the Panelization Module, click on the Autopanel button and then choose a script from the menu.

The Panelization Module supports break-off tabs, fiducial marks, tooling holes, bad marks, text, bar codes, test coupons, corner rounding/chamfering and more. It is also possible to build panels with several different boards in the same panel.

Solder paste stencils

Typically, a stencil is used to apply solder paste to the pads of automatically placed SMT components on a printed circuit board. In addition to the SMT pads, the stencil usually includes some kind of hole pattern to aid in tensioning the stencil in its frame, as well as fiducial marks and text. Often, the stencil holes for individual pads will be reduced in size or modified in shape so that the correct amount of solder paste will be placed on each pad.

The Stencil Module can set up a solder paste stencil product with a one-click operation. Select a product in the Product Browser, open the Stencil module, click on the Autostencil button and then choose a script from the menu.

The Stencil Module supports specifying multiple stencil frames, placing both top side and bottom side data on the same stencil, reducing the size of all openings or individual openings, specifying the corner radius of openings, splitting large (heat-sink) openings into patterns of smaller openings, replacing openings with other shapes, defining steps (regions with reduced stencil thickness), and more.

Assembly Masks

If the assembly process for a PCB product requires multiple soldering processes, it may be necessary to add a peel-off mask or Kapton tape to the product. Often, these processes have not been considered by the PCB layout designer, and are therefore not included in the data generated by the designer’s CAD system.

The Assembly Masks Module may be used to add peel-off, paste, glue, hard gold, carbon print or Kapton tape mask data to an existing PCB product. The mask area may be defined either as a freely drawn rectangle or as all pads within a rectangle. Select a product in the Product Browser and click on the Add masks button.

Assembly Data Manager 

The Assembly Data Manager (ADM) is an integrated BOM Tool and Pick and Place Data Manager for PCBs. It provides an integrated environment for managing and reviewing Pick and Place (PnP) and Bill of Materials (BOM) data.

The ADM helps dramatically reduce time and effort in preparing assembly data, by combining the following features in a single module:

• Graphic viewer with component editing functionality
• Structured component overview with properties editor
• Component search facility (powered by Octopart)
• Send RFQ for assembly to participating EMS providers (Basic version only)
• Component price estimator (Pro version only)
• Component rotation, height and solder temperature editor
• Export PnP and BOM data (Pro version only)

Depanelization

The Depanelization Editor module may be used to generate a milling program for removing the tabs from an assembly array, and to design a fixture for holding the boards securely in place during depanelization.

Test fixtures

The Test Fixture Designer module may be used to specify the locations of alignment pins and test pins on a test fixture. Suitable test jigs and pins (listed in the Test accessories folder of the Product Browser) are available for purchase.

Solder pallets

The Pallet creator module supports creating wave solder pallets. A wave solder pallet is a reliable and inexpensive fixture for soldering through-hole components. The pallet is typically made from a synthetic material, such as Durapol or Durostone®. Macaos supports the design of both full and selective wave solder pallets.

Quotations and the Shopping basket

Macaos Enterprise supports instant online price quotations for most PCB products. You can choose various quantities and lead times to find the combination that best meets your needs. Once you have gotten a price, you can add it to your “shopping basket” and then place your order when you are ready.

For complex PCBs, online prices may not be available. The Quotation Module has integrated support for generating a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for such products.

Technical documentation

A layout document set, panel drawing or stackup drawing of PCB any product may be generated in PDF format.

Mechanical parts

The STL Import Module is used to read 3D data (in STL-format) and save it as a mechanical part product. The module includes a 3D viewer, which allows zoom, pan, rotation, etc.

Since STL data is “unit-less,” the importer assumes that units are in millimeters. This can easily be changed as necessary. Once the object size is correct the product may be published.

Off-the-shelf products

While PCBs, stencils and related fixtures are products which may only be purchased by their owner (and partners), Macaos Enterprise also supports purchasing “off the shelf” products. These include connectors, test accessories, software, stencil stretch frames and more. Simply select a product from the appropriate folder in the product browser. For connectors, the Connector chooser module helps you browse among a myriad of connector families and options.

Product sharing and collaboration

One of the powerful features of Macaos Enterprise is sharing product data with your partners. For example, an external consultant might design of your PCB and then import and publish the PCB with you as the product owner. Then you might share the product with your EMS provider, who would panelize, create a stencil, add assembly masks and create fixtures as necessary.

Use the Partner Manager to manage partnerships with other companies. Right-click on a product in the Product Browser and choose Add share to share a product.

User information

Click on the User Admin button to view or modify user contact information.

The Product Browser is the heart of Macaos Enterprise. It consists of three main elements:

1. the Product Finder (left) with its two tabs:

   • Product explorer

   • Recent activity

2. an Icon Bar (top)

3. the Product Details Viewer (right) with its four tabs:

   • Product info

   • Product view

   • Product history

   • My supplier

In most cases, you can use the following procedure to create a board product:

1. Open the data files. When you open the Import Module, select the zip file (or the individual files) for the product. The Import Module will attempt to autolink each file to the appropriate layer based on the names of the individual files. The files are listed in the Files pane.
2. Check the file – layer linking. Files which are not autolinked must be linked manually, by clicking on the blue text in the Layer column of the Files pane and selecting the desired layer from the layer menu. The file image is displayed, in order to help select the correct layer. Right-click on a file to view the file as text or to change the file type.
3. Review drill holes. In most cases drill files are read and interpreted correctly. But you should check that this is the case. You can modify tool diameters in the Drills pane. If necessary, see Scale adjustment and Offset adjustment for information on how to make adjustments. Be sure to also check/correct plating for each tool, and drill depth for each file. Right-click on a tool to specify via plugging/filling for all holes with that tool.
4. Define the board contour. Go to the Board outline pane. In many cases, the outer contour and inner contour (if any) will be defined automatically. If so, this should be checked to insure that the contour was defined correctly. Track routing and scoring (if any) must always be defined manually.
5. Place the product/batch number. The manufacturer usually adds a product/batch number to the board. You may specify its position by clicking on the No. icon button and placing the rectangle at the desired position on the board.
6. Specify the board parameters.
   • Go to the Specs pane. You must select a stackup. In addition, you may choose non-standard surface finish, solder mask color and legend color and various other specifications. If the product is to have electrolytic (hard) gold applied to any pads or connector surfaces, then the gold area (in cm²) must also be specified.
   • Go to the Stats pane. Minimum track width, clearance and annular ring must be specified for the product. Correct the estimated values if necessary.
   • Go to the ID & Options pane. You must specify a product name. You may also specify an article number and description and select options.
7. Publish the product. Choose File|Publish to Product Browser to publish the new product:
   • Go through each item in the approval checklist to insure that you haven't forgotten anything. Click the OK button to continue.
   • Once the product has been published to the server, the new product number will be displayed. You'll find the product in the Never Ordered folder and Recently Published folder of the product browser.

The Files pane lists the files which have been added to the project using the File|Add files command. Each file is listed together with its file type and the layer to which the file has been linked. Multiple files may be selected when opening files. Additional files may be added executing the File|Add files command again.

When a file is added to the list, an attempt is made to determine the file type. If, for some reason, the file type is incorrect, it can be changed by right-clicking on the file and choosing the correct file type from the Change file type submenu. (Note: Empty image files are identified as text files.)

The contents of the file list may be filtered with the Configure menu:

• Configure|Hide linked files hides all files that have already been linked
• Configure|Hide non-image files hides all text files and other non-image files
• Configure|Hide common part of file names shows only the portion of filenames used by autolinking

Unlike with Gerber files, there is not a clearly defined standard for the format of drill files. The program does its best to interpret drill files, but sometimes they simply do not contain enough information to do so automatically.

For best results, you should (if possible) configure the NC Drill generator in your CAD system to use 3.3 METRIC format and to include tool diameters in the drill file. For example, in PADS you should use the configuration shown here.

Drill files should always be checked. For example, some drill files have the hole coordinates in inches while the tool diameters are in millimeters, which will lead to incorrect interpretation. Or perhaps the entire file is in millimeters without specifying so, in which case the file will be interpreted as being in inches and will be too large by a factor of 25.4.

Note: If you are having difficulties with a file that has been generated with metric coordinates, open the file in a text editor and add a line containing M71 immediately after the line with a % character (if it exists) or at the beginning of the file.

The Drill tools pane lists all of the drill files which have been linked. Each drill file has a depth (by default Top to bottom) and a type (by default Plated). Right-click on a file to change its hole depth or the plating of all tools.

If the drill tool diameters are defined within the drill file, then these will be automatically interpreted. If the drill tool diameters are listed in a separate file (or not listed at all), then you will need to enter the tool diameters into the program manually.

The Board outline objects define the routing and scoring processes for the board. The simplest case is four lines defining the perimeter of a rectangular board. However, many PCBs have much more complex geometry. Every product must have one (and only one) outer contour. Additional outline objects may define large openings in the board, slots, scoring lines for breaking up a panel after assembly, etc.

There are four types of outline objects:

• Outer contours are closed paths (no openings or overlap between segments) describing the outer boundary of a board. When manufactured, the cutting tool will cut on the outside of the line. Inside corners in the contour will have a radius of half the tool size.

• Inner contours are closed paths (no openings or overlap between segments) describing the boundary of an opening in a board. When manufactured, the cutting tool will cut on the inside of the line. Inside corners in the contour will have a radius of half the tool size.

• Track contours are slots in the board. The center of the cutting tool follows the line, and the slot width is the tool size.

• Scoring is a process where a pair of circular blades cut into the top and bottom of the board, so that the board may be broken at a later point in time (usually after components have been mounted). Scoring lines must be straight horizontal or vertical lines which extend to the entire height or width of the board.

To create an outline object:

1. Choose a cutter diameter. If necessary, enter a diameter (in mm) between 0.6 and 3.1.
   Note: For flex boards, it is also possible to choose Laser as a cutter diameter.
2. Check off for plated edges (if desired). The outer contour of a product can not be plated.
3. Select the segments from the active layer.
4. Select/specify the routing depth (applies only to inner and track objects).
5. Click on the button for the desired outline object.

If the selected segments do not describe a closed path, then the Outer and Inner buttons will be disabled. In the same manner, if the selected segments include anything but straight horizontal or vertical lines, then the Scoring button will be disabled.

The icon buttons at the top determine how segments are selected or created. The first four buttons set the segment selection mode:

• Select chain selects all segments in a path. A path is defined as a sequence of segments where the start point of each segment is equal to the end point of the previous segment. For a closed path, you only need to select any part of the path. For an open path, you should select the beginning of the path. Previously selected segments will be deselected.
• Select selects all of the segments within the selection rectangle. Any previously selected segments will be deselected.
• Selection add selects all of the segments within the selection rectangle without deselecting any previously selected segments.
• Selection subtract deselects only the segments within the selection rectangle, leaving the remaining segments selected.

Use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the segments to select. Only segments on the Active layer (shown in blue) are selected. To change the active layer, choose a layer from the Active layer drop down list at the top of the Contour pane.

Note: Normally, only lines and arcs may be selected as contour objects. In order to select a round, oval, square, rectangle or rounded rectangle as a contour object, press the Ctrl key while selecting.

The next two buttons may be used to draw segments:

• Draw contour segment allows you to draw a contour segment manually. A straight line segment is created from the point where you press the left mouse button to the point where the mouse button is released.
• Quick contour allows you to draw a contour rectangle manually. Four straight line segments are created from the selection rectangle.

Drawn segments are used in the same manner as selected segments when creating a contour object.

Note: The two drawing modes may be useful if you have difficulties defining an outer contour, or if you simply want to do a quick import for the purpose of getting a price estimate.

The rightmost button clears all selected segments:

• Selection clear deselects all selected segments.

To delete contour objects, right click on the object and choose Delete or Delete all.

The Specs pane is used to specify board properties, such as stackup, surface finish and silkscreen colors.

Click on the Select button to choose a stackup.

Choose a surface finish and colors for solder mask and legend. You can change the default values for these with the Configure|Options menu command.

If the board is to have hard (electrolytic) gold, specify the total area to have gold for each side.

Specify additional properties as appropriate.

If you have additional remarks that need to be passed on to the fabricator together with the production data, these can be entered either added to the Remarks layer or by using the File|Message to fabricator... menu command of the Import module.

If you are importing a board that is a revision of an existing product, you may use the Actions|Import board specs menu command and enter a product number. This will populate the board specifications and minimum feature sizes with values from the specified product.

Note: For single layer boards, it is not possible to link a soldermask file to the non-copper side of the board. In the Board Specifications pane, the soldermask color for the non-copper side will be set to None. Changing this to a color will indicate that the board should have soldermask on the non-copper side. This may increase the cost of the board.

The Stats pane shows statistics for holes, routing, minimum features and other parameters. Parameters that can increase the cost of the product are highlighted with red text.

Minimum features

Minimum track width is the minimum width of electrical copper features on the layer. Minimum clearance is the minimum spacing between copper features on the layer. Minimum annular ring is the minimum ring width (pad radius minus hole radius) around plated holes on the layer.

Minimum track width and minimum annular ring are estimated by performing a simple analysis of the imported copper and drill layer data. Minimum clearance is estimated to be the same as the minimum track width. These estimates will be correct in most cases, but some CAD systems generate their trace and/or pad data in a manner that is too complex and timeconsuming for the rapid analysis performed by the Import module. Click on the hyperlink for more info about estimated minimum features.

If you know that one or more of the estimated values are incorrect, you should enter the correct values as necessary.

Note: If an estimated value is zero, then you must enter a value.

Note: If you have specified a stackup with a copper thickness larger than 1 ounce (35μm) then you may encounter restrictions on the allowed minimum track width or clearance. The minimum allowed track width or clearance on a layer is typically 2 to 3 times the copper thickness.

Note: Minimum feature sizes are used during price calculation, and if incorrectly specified may lead to incorrect price quotations. They are checked by the seller's CAM department prior to production, and actual prices will be adjusted if necessary.

Multi-board panels

If the product is a multi-board panel, specify the number of boards in the panel and the number of unique boards in the panel. Click on a hyperlink for more info about specifying board quantities.

Note: These values are used during price calculation, and if incorrectly specified may lead to incorrect price quotations. They are checked by the manufacturer's CAM department prior to production, and actual prices will be adjusted if necessary.

The ID & Options pane is used to specify the product's name and description, and to specify product options as desired.

Product identification

A product must have a name. It may also have an article/stock/part number and/or a description.

If the manufacturer's packing system supports bar codes, the article number will be printed on the package labels both as text and as a bar code (unless the article number exceeds 20 characters). It should contain only English language letters, numbers, spaces, and the most common symbols (such as periods [.], hyphens [-] and slashes [/]).

Product options

Performance class: IPC, in the IPC-601x standards, has defined performance classes as a simple method of specifying tolerances and other quality requirements when manufacturing a PCB. The standard performance class is class 2, which is suitable for most applications. See here for more info.

Impedance control: If checked, then this product will require impedance control during manufacture. Impedance control is an added cost option.

Disallow manufacturer marking: If checked, then the manufacturer shall not add any identifying marks to the board. This option should not be selected if the board requires UL marks.

Copper shaving not allowed: If checked, then the manufacturer shall not retract copper from board edges or cutouts. Selecting this option implies that copper burrs along edges will be accepted. This option should only be checked in cases where it is necessary that copper extend to the board edges.

In this mode you can view the shapes and sizes of all pads in a padstack. Click on a drill hole to view the padstack report.

If a board is going to be sent through an automated (pick and place) assembly process, then the board should have at least one fiducial mark. A fiducial mark may be added by specifying the size and shape of the mark and clicking at the desired location. Press Ctrl+Alt when clicking to specify the location coordinates with the keyboard. Fiducials must not be placed too close to copper features or holes. If placed within a copper plane, an opening will be made in the copper. If a Pick&Place layer exists, the fiducial mark will also be indicated there.

You may add remarks to a board. This is useful, for example, if there is some information about a specific region on the board which needs to be communicated to the manufacturer. To place a remark:

1. Click on the Add remarks to board button to depress the button.
2. Draw a circle around the area on the board to which the remark applies.
3. Enter the text of the remark in the Place remark dialog box. Add line breaks as appropriate. The text will be placed to the right of the circle.
4. Click OK to complete creation of the remark.

Use the Clear all remarks button to remove all remarks from the board.

Note: If you wish to add a remark which is not tied to a specific location on the board, you may use the Edit|Remarks to fabricator menu command.

The manufacturer places a product/batch number at some position on the board, in order to identify the boards during production. If you wish, you may specify the position of this mark, rather than leaving it to the manufacturer to place the mark. The mark is normally placed on the legend top layer, but you may choose the bottom layer instead. If no legend layer exists, then the mark will be placed on a copper layer. If you choose not to place a mark, the mark will be placed by the manufacturer (unless there is not enough “empty” space on the board for the mark). To place a mark:

1. Click on the Place Product/Batch number button to depress the button.
2. Select the radio button for the desired layer.
3. Select the Horizontal or Vertical radio button, or press Ctrl+R to change the text orientation.
4. Place the rectangle at the desired location.
5. Press Escape to exit the placement mode.

You should only place one mark on a board. For a panel of boards, a mark should be placed on each board in the panel.

Use the Clear symbols button or the Delete key to remove all marks.

A number of commonly used symbols may be added to the board. To add a symbol to the board, click on the Add symbols button and then do the following:

1. Select the desired symbol.
2. Select the radio button for the desired layer.
3. Click and draw a rectangle for the bounding box of the symbol. (Doesn't apply to bar codes.)
4. Right-click to cancel the operation, if desired.
5. For a panel of boards, a symbol should be placed on each board.

Use the Clear symbols button or the Delete key to remove all of the current type of symbols.

The following symbols may be placed on soldermask or legend layers:

• UL mark. A bounding box is drawn where the manufacturer should place their UL mark. UL marks are specific to the factory, so only the boundary is displayed. By default, bounding boxes are restricted to one of several standard sizes. To create a smaller boundinig box, press Ctrl when clicking. Note: not all factories support smaller boxes.
• Lead-free symbol
• CE mark
• WEEE symbol
• Recycle symbol
• ESD-susceptibility symbol
• RoHS mark
• Annotation field. An annotation field is simply a solid rectangle, which may be used for laser etching or manual markings, such as serial numbers.
  An annotation field may either be drawn as a rectangle or placed with a size suitable for a specific marking. To define the marking size, click on the Define button. This opens a dialog box for calculating the appropriate size for a text or bar code. You should enter a text similar (and with the same number of characters) as will be actually used.
  Note: Two-dimensional bar codes use different encodings for a text with numbers-only, English alphanumeric text, or containing other-language characters. The actual bar code may differ in size from the sample displayed in the dialog if the sample text differs in number of character types.

  Note: For laser engraved 2-dimensional bar codes, we recommend a module size of 0.5 mm or larger.
  Note: You should avoid placing an annotation field over copper traces if the annotation text will be laser engraved (due to the possibility of etching through the solder mask).

The following text formats may only be placed on legend layers:

• Bar code in Code 128-B format.
• 2D bar code in Data Matrix ECC 200 format.
  Enter the bar code text in the edit box. The size of the bar code depends on the length of the text. Two floating rectangles display the size of the bar code and the surrounding quiet zone. Click to place the bar code. A bar code on the bottom layer is automatically mirrored.
  The bar code will be in the soldermask color, with the legend color as the background color. For a dark legend on a light soldermask, this will result in an inverse image. Note: Many bar code reader apps do not support inverse images. We recommend the “ScanLife” app by Scanbuy, Inc., available at www.getscanlife.com.
• A text string.
  Enter the text in the edit box. A floating rectangle displays the size of the text. Click to place the text string. Text on the bottom layer is automatically mirrored.
  A text string that complies with IPC/JEDEC standard J-STD-609A (for marking lead-free printed circuit boards) may be generated by clicking on the J-STD-609 button. This opens a dialog box where you may choose the material codes to include in the text string.

Note: Only ASCII characters from 32-127 are supported. This includes all digits, all letters in the English alphabet, and many symbols. Non-english characters or characters with accents or other diacritical marks are not supported.

Note: If the edit box is not visible, maximize the Import module window and/or use the Configure| Hide left sidebar and/or Configure|Hide right sidebar menu commands to increase the width of the graphic display.

Once everything has been specified, the product may be published to the Macaos server. Prior to publishing, you must go through a checklist to confirm that all of the information is correct. You can use the check boxes to help you while going through the items. You must check off to confirm that you have reviewed items before the product may be published.

The checklist also lists the items that will be reviewed by the manufacturer once an order has been placed for the product.

Once the all items in the checklist have been checked and the checklist has been closed, a product number is assigned and the publishing process begins.

Normally, when a product is published, the user's company will be the owner of the product. If your company has partners, then you may choose one of your partners to be the product owner rather than your own company. See the Product sharing chapter for more information about partner management.

Once the product has been published and the product files have been uploaded to the server, the product product number is displayed and the product will be visible in the Never Ordered folder of the Product Browser, for pricing and order placement.

Stackup drawing

While generating the product files, a stackup drawing (in PDF format), including blind and buried vias (if any), will also be generated for the product.

If desired, you may specify your own text for the various fields of the drawing's title block.

Choose Configure|Options to modify the program configuration.

Default import folder and Default Export folder specify the starting folder for the File|Add files and File|Save to local disk commands.

The Default values settings determine the surface finish, solder mask color, legend color and outer/inner contour cutter diameter when importing a board.

Autolink state at startup specifies the autolink mode when the module is opened.

The Warn if estimated minimum features less than settings may be used to specify a value for minimum track/clearance and minimum annular ring. If the minimum feature estimator finds a value less than the specified minimum, then a warning message will be generated when publishing.

The Show help text option causes the help text panel to be shown when the module is opened.

The Run the File|New command option runs the File|New command when the module opens.

The Disable estimating minimum feature sizes option prevents estimation of minimum feature sizes. This may be useful if your CAD system generates larger objects by drawing them with many small, overlapping lines, thereby giving consistently incorrect estimates. When estimation is disabled, you must always enter the minimum feature size values before publishing.

The Show title block editor when creating stackup drawing option determines whether or not the editor will be displayed prior to creating a drawing. If you have previously selected Do not show this editor again, then this option allows you to re-enable the editor.

The graphic region displays the panel. The check boxes in the layer list control which layers are visible.

See the Product browser chapter for an overview of viewer functionality such as pan and zoom, display modes, mirrored and rotated view, and measurement.

Select and place operations

Select and place operations are done with the left mouse button. The operation performed depends on the current design mode. When no operational mode is selected, selecting any portion of a board contour selects the board (for moving or copying).

Selected boards are highlighted with a white border while they are active (for movement). Once the selected board has been placed, the highlight color changes to yellow.

Rotating boards in a panel

An unselected board may be rotated 180° by pressing the Space key while the mouse pointer is within the board. This operation may be used with boards that may otherwise not be moved or rotated due to panel scoring (v-cut).

Pressing the Space key while one or more boards are selected rotates the selected board(s) by 90°.

Flipping boards in a panel

An unselected board may be flipped upside-down by pressing Shift+Space while the mouse pointer is within the board. This operation may be used with boards that may otherwise not be moved or rotated due to panel scoring (v-cut).

Flipping a board upside-down both mirrors the board and swaps top layers with bottom layers (and corresponding inner layers with each other). This feature is useful for improving copper balance or when creating a panel where the same solder paste stencil is to be used on both sides.

Layers

The layer list displays all layers in the panel. Check boxes are used to specify which layers are visible in the graphic display.

Right-click on the list to show only top layers, show only bottom layers, hide all layers or toggle layer visibility.

Right-click on a layer name to change the display color for that layer. The new color will be used throughout Macaos Enterprise.

The Help tab displays a quick reference for pan/zoom and other graphic viewer commands.

The Panel design action is used to specify the quantity and spacing of board instances on the panel. Use the Panelize button to create the panel, and the Unpanelize button to “undo” the panel.

Instances (x * y): These values specify the number of boards in the X and Y directions, respectively. The total number of boards in the array is the product of the X and Y values.

Rot. 90°: If checked, the board instances will be rotated 90 degrees within the panel.

Frame: These values specify the width of the panel frame on each edge of the panel. These values are specified in millimeters.

Outer dimensions: These values show the total width and height of the panel frame. Modifying an outer dimension will automatically change the corresponding frame widths.

Instance Spacing: These values specify the distance between each instance in the array. Instance spacing may not be less than the rout width. Be sure to specify an adequate instance spacing, if you will be adding bad marks to the panel.

Rout width: This value specifies the diameter of the routing tool used to cut the slots between the boards. Use the default value (1.6mm) unless you have a specific need for a different value (such as due to thin slots or a small inner corner radius).

Scoring: If checked, scoring (V-cut) will be used between boards rather than routing along the outer X and/or Y edges.

Mixed scoring and routing

When scoring is used with non-rectangular boards, only the edges which follow the bounding rectangle will be scored. All other edges will be routed (milled). This can lead to small burrs or pointed corners at the junction between routing and scoring.

By default, the routed slots are “locked” to stop at the scoring line, so that they will not damage neighboring boards. Slots that will cross the scoring line into waste material will do so in most cases. However the results may be unsatisfactory for slots that are not straight lines or that cross the scoring line with a small angle.

This behavior may be “unlocked,” by clicking on the padlock icon. When scoring is unlocked, the routed slots will extend at least one radius beyond the scoring line, without protecting neighboring boards.

Care should be taken when using unlocked scoring. Unlocked scoring is most suitable for symmetrical boards. In other cases, there is a risk of unwanted notches in neighboring boards.

Alternatively, you may increase the Instance spacing to be at least as large as the Rout width. This will create double scoring lines, thereby allowing the routing slots to extend beyond the scoring lines without damaging neighboring boards.

Scoring lines in the panel frame

Scoring lines extend normally from one edge of a panel to the opposite edge. Individual scoring lines may be pulled back from the outside panel edge to the inside edge of the panel frame by holding the mouse pointer over the end of the scoring line and pressing Ctrl+V. Note: The actual scoring cut will extend a few millimeters beyond the end of the displayed scoring line, due to the diameter of the scoring saw blade. Note: Manufacturing a panel with this feature requires Jump Scoring. Not all manufacturers are able to deliver panels with Jump Scoring.

Rotating or flipping a board in a panel with scoring

It is not normally possible to select, move or rotate individual boards when scoring has been chosen. However, a board may be rotated 180° (by pressing the Space key) or flipped (by pressing Shift+Space) while the mouse pointer is within the board to be rotated/flipped.

Copper fill: The frame may be filled with copper on the outer and/or inner layer(s). Outer layers are filled with solid copper. Inner layers are filled with a pattern of 5mm diameter dots. Note: Adding copper to the outer layer increases panel stiffness, but may affect soldering temperature.

Copper fill helps increase the panel stiffness during the soldering process, and is especially useful for lead-free soldering. However, copper fill is not advised for vapor-phase soldering since the large copper mass may steal too much heat.

Corners: Choose between square, rounded or chamfered corners on the panel frame. Chamfered corners may be chosen for either top feeding or side feeding. Note: Rounded or chamfered corners are not available if the panel frame width is too small for the corner modification.

The Panelization module supports two kinds of break-off tabs. Edge tabs are tabs placed along the edge of a board. Corner tabs are placed at the corner of a board.

Edge tabs may be removed by breaking, cutting or milling the tab. Milling is the safest method for removing tabs. Breaking or cutting a tab may lead to damaged solder joints, especially on surface mounted components near the break-off tab. When a corner tab is placed at the corner of all adjacent boards (i.e. not along the edge of a neighboring board) then it can be removed by drilling rather than by cutting the tab. See the Depanelization chapter for more info.

Tab length: This value specifies the length of the tabs. For edge tabs, this is the length of the narrowest point on the tab. For corner tabs, the width of the narrowest point is about 40% of the specified tab length.

Holes: A row of “mousebite” holes may be added to tabs. Diameter, spacing and offset of the holes may be specified. The number of holes is determined automatically. Mousebite holes are not added to corner tabs.

Remove soldermask: If checked, solder mask will be removed from around each break-off tab and its mousebite holes (if any). This helps prevent cracks in the solder mask when cutting the tabs. Note: Removing the solder mask may expose copper near tabs. Check all tabs carefully.

Autoplace: This function places tabs at the midpoints or corners of each board's outer contour. For boards with curved edges, the endpoints of arcs are treated as corners.

For boards with complex contours and for multi-product panels, autoplacement may give undesirable results.

Manual placement: To place tabs manually, click on the Place button (so that it is “down”).

When you click and drag the mouse pointer, a horizontal or vertical line appears. When you release the mouse button, tabs will be placed at each point where the line crosses a board edge.

Alternatively, tabs can be placed one at a time. Clicking on the edge of a board will place tabs at that position on each instance of that board in the panel. To place a tab on only one board, hold the Ctrl key down while clicking to place the tab.

For wave soldered panels, you should add at least one break-off tab to inner contours so that the material will not be removed during production.

Tab removal: To remove all tabs, click on the Clear all button.

To remove individual tabs, click on the Remove button (so that it is “down”). Left-click and draw a selection rectangle around the tab(s) to remove. All tabs at that position on all boards in the array will be removed. To remove a tab from only one board, hold the Ctrl key down while removing the tab.

Note: If a multi-product panel is specified without any tabs, the boards within the panel will be delivered as individual boards rather than as a panel. (A single-product panel may not be specified without tabs.)

Fiducial marks consist of a copper pad and a soldermask opening. The clear zone is the size of the copper fill opening (if copper fill is enabled). A fiducial on a paste mask layer will have the same size as on the copper layer.

Fiducial marks may be added to the panel frame and/or adjacent to each board in the panel. It is not possible to place fiducial marks within the outer contour of any board in the panel.

Panel fiducial marks

Panel fiducial marks are added to the panel frame relative either to the outer corners of the frame or to the center of the panel. Typically, one would place fiducial marks near three of the panel’s four corners.

Board fiducial marks

Board fiducial marks are added to the space between boards relative to the corners or center of each board's bound box. The bound box is the rectangle defined by the board's maximum width and height. The center of a board fiducial may not be placed more than 10mm inside of the bound box. Board fiducials are typically only used for boards needing a high level of precision due to ultra-fine pitch components. It is usually sufficient with one fiducial mark per board.

Note: Board fiducials may not be placed within the contour of a board. If you need to place fiducials within a board, this should be done in the Import module prior to publishing the single-board product.

Creating fiducial marks

1. Select the desired layers, sizes and shapes for the fiducial marks.

2. Select either Panel or Boards and then select the corners (of the panel or boards) at which fiducial marks are to be placed.

3. For each direction (x or y), select Corner or Center anchoring. Then specify the distance from the corner/center of the panel to the center of the fiducial mark.

4. Click on the Place button to create the fiducial marks. Repeat as necessary.

Removing fiducial marks

To remove all fiducial marks, click on the Clear all button.

To remove individual fiducial marks, click on the Remove button (so that it is “down”) and then click on the fiducial mark to remove.

Tooling holes

Tooling holes are holes typically placed near one or more corners of the panel. They are typically used for registration purposes during the manufacturing process.

Tooling holes may be defined as round holes or slots. For round holes the diameter must be specified. For slots, the slot height and width must be specified. The smaller dimension is the diameter of the cutting tool, and the larger dimension is the total length of the slot (including tool radius).

Break-off holes

Break-off holes are a row of holes in the frame in line with an edge of the boards in the panel. These are used to break away portions of the frame when removing the finished boards from the panel.

Creating holes

1. For tooling holes, select a shape and specify the hole dimensions. Select the panel corners at which tooling holes are to be placed. For each direction (x or y), select Corner or Center anchoring. Then specify the distance from the corner/center of the panel to the center of the hole or slot. Note: Remove all corner check marks if you only wish to create break-off holes.

2. For break-off holes specify a diameter and spacing. Select which edge(s) of boards the break-off holes should follow. Note: Remove all edge check marks if you only wish to create tooling holes.

3. Click on the Place button to create the holes. Repeat as necessary.

Removing holes

To remove all tooling holes and break-off holes, click on the Clear all button.

To remove individual tooling holes or break-off holes, click on the Remove button (so that it is “down”) and then draw a selection rectangle around the hole(s) to remove.

You may add text, bar codes or annotation fields to the panel frame.

Plain text on the legend layer may also be placed within individual boards, which is useful when giving the boards in the panel individual position identifiers.

Select a target layer, and enter the text to place.

Plain text

The Font height specifies the height of the characters. Select a Rotation, if desired. Text on a bottom layer will automatically be mirrored.

Click on the Place button (so that it is “down”) and then click where you wish to place the text. Text may only be placed where it will fit within the frame of the panel (or, on Legend layers, within the board).

To remove text, click on the Remove button (so that it is “down”) and then click on the text to remove.

Bar code

A bar code may be placed on either legend layer of the panel frame. The bar code is generated in either Code128-B or Data Matrix ECC 200 format.

White legend on green solder mask will give an inverse bar code image. Note: Many bar code reader apps do not support inverse images. We recommend the “ScanLife” app by Scanbuy, Inc., available at www.getscanlife.com.

If a Code 128-B bar code is to be placed along one of the vertical edges of the frame, then check Vertical orientation. A bar code on the bottom layer will automatically be mirrored.

Click on the Place button (so that it is “down”). Then click where you wish to place the bar code. A bar code may only be placed where it will fit within the frame of the panel. It is not possible to place a bar code on the boards.

To remove bar codes, click on the Clear all button. All bar codes will be removed.

Note: The bar codes are limited to ASCII characters from 32 to 127. This includes all digits, all letters in the English alphabet, and many symbols. Non-English characters or characters with accents or other diacritical marks are not supported.

Annotation field

An annotation field is a solid rectangle which may be used for laser etching, handwritten serial numbers or other information. It may be placed on a legend or solder mask layer of the panel frame.

Note: If you need to place an annotation field within the boards of the panel, this can be done with the Assembly masks design action.

Click on the desired layer name in the layer list, and then click on the Place button (so that it is “down”). Choose whether the annotation field is to be drawn or placed with a defined mark size.

If drawn, then draw a rectangle defining the size of the annotation field.

If placed with a defined mark size, click first on the Define button. This opens a dialog box for calculating the appropriate size for a text or bar code. You should enter a text similar (and with the same number of characters) as will be actually used. After closing the dialog box, place the annotation field as desired.

Note: For laser engraved 2-dimensional bar codes, we recommend a module size of 0.5 mm or larger.

Note: Two-dimensional bar codes use different encodings for a text with numbers-only, English alphanumeric text, or containing other-language characters. The actual bar code may differ in size from the sample displayed in the dialog if the sample text differs in number of character types.

To remove annotation fields, click on the Remove button (so that it is “down”) and then click on the fields to remove.

Bad marks are locations (either bare copper or legend ink) on a panel where an indicator may be placed to mark boards or panels that should be ignored in the assembly process. The bad boards or panels may be marked with a felt marker or a sticker. Many assembly machines are capable of detecting bad marks, and will automatically skip the bad boards/panels during assembly.

1. Specify the side, style, diameter and shape of the bad marks.

2. Specify the location of the mark for the panel. The position is specified as the distance from the corner, so the values will always be positive.

3. Specify the location of the marks for each board. The position is specified relative to the selected corner. For bottom or left sides, it may be necessary to specify a negative value to place the mark outside of the board.

4. Click on the Place button to place the specified bad marks.

Be sure to check that the bad marks for each board do not get placed within neighboring boards. If necessary, you should increase the instance spacing between the boards to make room for the bad marks.

Removing bad marks

To remove bad marks, click on the Clear all button. All bad marks will be removed.

Often, the necessary data for assembly masks is missing from the Gerber files created by the board designer. Especially in cases where assembly is being done by an EMS provider, this missing data can be a problem. It is the EMS provider who knows the processes and needs to specify the masks, but getting this information to the board designer early enough to be included in the design is usually not possible. With the assembly masks feature, the mask areas may be specified by the production engineer while creating the assembly panel.

Masks are specified by drawing rectangles on the panel. The Fill mode determines whether the mask will be applied to the entire rectangle or to all soldermask openings within the rectangle. This is repeated at the same location on all instances of the same board in the panel.

The following assembly masks (top or bottom side) may be defined:

• Peel-off mask (Blue mask): Used to protect a region from the solder process(es). Normally applied to an entire rectangle.

• Paste mask: Defines openings in a solder mask stencil. This data may then be used in the Stencil Module to create a stencil product. Normally applied to pads within the rectangle.

• Glue mask: Defines openings in a glue mask stencil. Normally applied to an entire rectangle drawn between the pads of a component.

• Hard gold: Defines which pads should have a hard (electrolytic) gold (finger contact) finish. Normally applied to pads within the rectangle.

• Carbon print: Defines which pads should have a carbon (finger contact) finish. Normally applied to pads within the rectangle.

• Kapton tape: Used to protect a region from chemical or solder processes. Normally applied to an entire rectangle.

• Legend: The notation layer, sometimes also called silkscreen. Used to create an annotation field.

• Solder: The solder mask layer. Useful for removing solder mask from a region, in order to help prevent cracks in the solder mask when manually cut or otherwise mechanically processed. Note: Care should be taken to avoid inadvertently exposing copper.

A mask is defined by the chosen fill mode when a selection rectangle is drawn. The fill modes are:

• Duplicate pads: The mask duplicates all soldermask openings within the selection rectangle. This mode is normally used for paste mask, hard gold and carbon layers. The mask will normally be somewhat larger than the copper pad it covers, but this should not be a problem. For a paste mask, the actual stencil opening size may be adjusted to a percentage of the copper pad size in the Solder paste stencils module. For hard gold and carbon layers, the mask is simply used to document to the manufacturer which pads should have a hard gold or carbon finish.

• Rectangle: The mask covers the entire area within the selection rectangles. This mode is normally used for peel-off and glue mask layers.

Note: For the Legend layer, you choose a placement method rather than a fill mode. This is the same as for placing an annotation field. You should avoid placing an annotation field over copper traces if the annotation text will be laser engraved (due to the possibility of etching through the solder mask).

Note: Assembly masks are added to the panel, and not to the boards within the panel. For this reason, if a board is moved or rotated, any assembly mask modifications you have created will not follow the board.

To remove all mask objects, click on the Clear all masks button.

To remove individual mask objects, click on the Remove button (so that it is “down”) and then draw a selection rectangle around the mask object(s) to remove.

Registration control coupon

A registration control coupon may be added to the panel frame by clicking the Place button (so that it is “down”) and then clicking at the desired location. The coupon has a combination of thin (0.1 to 0.175 mm) lines and plated holes, for use with cross-section or registration testing of the finished panel. The product number is encoded as a Data Matrix at either end of the coupon.

To remove all registration coupons, click on the Remove button.

Note: If the stackup has copper layers with a copper thickness of more than than 35µm (1 oz) then the lines in the registration coupon are enlarged accordingly.

Impedance coupons

To add an IPC-2221B compliant type Z impedance control coupon to the panel frame, do the following:

1. Select a signal style. A signal may be above, below or between copper planes. A signal may be either single-ended or differential. It is also possible to specify a broadside-coupled differential signal (with parallel signals on adjacent layers).
2. Select a signal layer. This is the layer for the signal trace, or for the upper signal trace when broadside-coupled.
3. Specify the width (and spacing for edge-couple differential pairs) of the signal trace(s).
4. Click on the Add to coupon button.
5. If desired, repeat steps 1-4 for addition impedance-critical signal configurations. The test coupon may have up to 12 signal configurations, but no more than 2 configurations on each layer.
6. If necessary, right-click on the signal list to remove a signal configuration from the list.
7. Click on the Place button (so that it is “down”) and then click at the desired location.

The resulting test coupon has signal traces and planes in accordance with the type Z coupon specification. If the panel has a legend top layer, then the terminal pads are annotated to indicate the signal type and layer.

If possible, signal configurations will be placed only on one side of the coupon, allowing it to fit into a 10 mm frame margin. If both sides are used then the frame margin must be at least 14.5 mm.

Board as coupon

Any single-board product may be added to the panel frame as a coupon. The selected board must be small enough to fit in the panel frame. All (non-routing) layers in the coupon which also exist in the panel are copied to the desired location of panel frame.
To add a board as coupon, do the following:

1. Click on the Place button. This opens the Panel coupon chooser dialog box.
2. The dialog box lists all products with a height or width less than the specified maximum size. If desired, you may specify a different maximum size and then click the Refresh list button to update the chooser list. Select the desired coupon product and then click the OK button to load the product into the panel module.
3. The coupon outline shows as a floating rectangle which follows the mouse pointer. If desired, press the Space key to rotate the coupon 90 degrees counter-clockwise. Click at the desired location(s) for the coupon.
4. Once the coupon has been placed, click on the Place button again to exit placement mode.

Note: You may not place a coupon such that it would extend outside of the panel or within any of the boards in the panel.
 

You may add remarks to a panel. This is useful, for example, if there is some information about a specific region on the board which needs to be communicated to the manufacturer. To place a remark:

1. Use the Actions|Add remark command to activate the graphical remarks mode.

2. Draw a circle around the area on the board to which the remark applies.

3. Enter the text of the remark in the Place remark dialog box. Add line breaks as appropriate. The text will be placed to the right of the circle.

4. Click OK to complete creation of the remark.

Use the Actions|Delete remarks command to remove all remarks from the board.

A single product may be panelized automatically with a script. An autopanel script automatically generates a panel by fitting the appropriate number of boards into the panel and adding fiducial marks, tooling holes, etc as specified in the script. In most cases, a finished panel can be generated with one click!

The MacaosDemo script is supplied with Macaos Enterprise. This script will create a panel approximately 250 mm by 150 mm with 10 mm frame borders, four tooling holes and three fiducial marks. To modify this script or create additional scripts, use the Configure|Script manager command to open the Autopanel script manager.

The available scripts are listed in the left column. Clicking on a script name loads the selected script so that its properties may be viewed or modified. These properties include:

Script style: Choose the style of script

• Best fit: A best fit script fits as many boards as possible into a panel between the specified minimum and maximum panel size. The panel frame size remains constant.
• Fixed size: A fixed size script fits as many boards as possible into a panel with the specified panel size. The panel frame size is adjusted as necessary.
• Frame objects only: A frame objects script adds frame objects to an existing panel, leaving the panel size and frame size unchanged.
   

Panel size: The minimum, ideal and maximum panel size. The script will find the instance combination that is closest to the ideal panel size, without exceeding the min/max limits. If Do not rotate boards in panel is not checked, then the script will rotate all boards by 90 degrees if that will increase the number of boards that will fit in the panel.

Panel properties: Use these properties to specify the frame width, spacing, corners and other parameters of the panel.

Break-off tabs: Use these properties to specify the size and placement of break-off tabs in the panel. If neither of the autoplace options are selected, then no tabs will be added to the panel by the script.

Objects in panel frame: A list of the optional objects that will be added to the panel frame by the script. There are five types of objects:

1. Fiducial marks: Any number of fiducial mark definitions may be added to the script

2. Tooling holes: Any number of tooling hole definitions may be added to the script

3. Annotation field: Any number of annotation fields may be added to the script

4. Break-off holes: Only one definition for break-off holes may be added to the script

5. Bad marks: Only one definition for bad marks may be added to the script

6. Text or bar code: Any number of text or bar code objects may be added to the script.

Click on the Add button to create a frame object definition. If a frame object in the list is selected when clicking the Add button, then a copy of that object will be created. Otherwise, a list is displayed from which you choose which type of object to create. After specifying all parameters, click on the Save button to save the object definition to the script.

When specifying a text or bar code object, right-click on the text field to insert a product property as the text.

It is not possible to include assembly mask or test coupon objects in a script. These must be added to the panel by the user after the script has been run.

Use the buttons at the bottom of the script list to save scripts. Right-click in the scripts list to delete, rename, import or export a script.

Scripts are stored together with the user's program settings. To share a script with another user, export the script to a file and send the file to the other user for import into their script manager.

There are also scripts available for download at www.macaos.com/support/panelscripts.

A multi-product panel may be easily created by simply choosing compatible products from the product chooser and placing them at the desired location in the panel.

Product chooser

The Product chooser works in a similar manner to the Macaos Enterprise Product Browser. It lists folders and products which are compatible with the panel's initial product.

The # column lists the quantity of each product in the panel. For a detailed view of a product or its specifications, right-click on the product and choose View product details to open the product viewer

Check boxes at the bottom of the product chooser are used to specify how strictly the products are checked for compatibility.

• Match stackup: If checked, then only products having the same buildup will be listed. Otherwise, all products with the same number of layers will be listed.

• Match colors: If checked, then only products having the same surface finish, soldermask color and legend color will be listed. Otherwise, products will be listed regardless of surface finish or color.

By default, the product chooser is hidden, since it uses valuable graphic display space. Use the Configure|Product chooser menu command or press Ctrl+R to show or hide the chooser.

Panel properties for multi-product panels

A multi-product panel may be manufactured either as a panel or as individual boards, as specified with the Manufacture as radio buttons. When individual boards is selected, there is no frame and there should be no break-off tabs between the boards. When panel is selected, the panel frame and corners may be freely specified. Each board in the panel should have break-off tabs on at least 3 sides.

Due to the complexities that can arise with many different products on a panel, there are limitations on some of the panel properties. The route width must be specified prior to adding a product to the panel. Instance spacing is ignored, since boards are placed manually.

Scoring may only be added in cases where all boards in a row (or column) have the same height (or width). It is not possible to select or move boards once scoring has been specified. Therefore, all boards should be placed prior to selecting X-scoring or Y-scoring. After scoring has been chosen, a board may be rotated 180° by pressing the Space key while the mouse pointer is within the board to be rotated.

Working with multi-product panels

A board may be added to a panel by either dragging the product from the list into the graphic display, or by double-clicking on the product in the list. The new board becomes the active board and is highlighted with a white border.

Note: It may take some time to download the graphic data for the product you are adding to the panel, so after dropping a new product into a panel, you may need wait until the data is loaded before you can move and place the board.

The active board follows the mouse pointer until it has been placed. The Panelization module has a snap function that prevents you from moving a board over an already placed board or frame object. It also snaps the edges of the active board to align with edges of placed boards. This may lead to some confusion when you first bring a new product into a panel, since the board may seem to be locked outside of the panel. The easiest solution is to simply place the board where it is, and then after the panel (and zoom) automatically resize themselves, you can move the new board to where you want it to be placed.

While a board is active (white border), the following operations may be performed:

• Space Pressing the space bar rotates the board 90 degrees around the mouse pointer.
• Shift Pressing Ctrl deactivates the auto-snap functionality as long as Ctrl is depressed.
• Left-click Clicking the left mouse button places the board at the current position.
• Del Pressing Del deletes the board from the panel.
• Esc Pressing Esc aborts the current operation. For a new board, the board is deleted. For an existing board, it is returned to its previous position.
• Right-click Clicking the right mouse button aborts the current operation.

To make a different board (or boards) active, draw a selection rectangle around any portion of the board's outline. To add a new copy of an existing board to the panel, press the Ctrl key while making the board active.

Each time a board is placed, the panel is resized using the frame widths specified on the Panel Properties page. The panel size and area are shown in the bottom left corner of the window.

A board may be rotated 180° or flipped top/bottom in its position by pressing Space (rotate) or Shift+Space (flip) while the mouse pointer is within the board.

When viewing a multi-product panel, an additional Product number layer shows the placement and product number of each board in the panel. This layer is for documentation purposes only and may not be exported as a manufacturing layer.

The status bar at the bottom of the graphic display shows information about the active board. This information includes the product number, board size, rotation and number of break-off tabs.

Note: All boards should be placed in their final positions prior to placing tabs, holes, text, etc.

Once everything has been specified, the product may be published to the Macaos server. After specifying the product name, article number and description in the dialog box, a product number will be assigned and the product files will be uploaded to the server.

While publishing, a panel drawing and a stackup drawing for the product are generated in PDF format. The user will have the opportunity to specify options and title block text for each drawing. These drawings are available from the Macaos Enterprise Product Browser.

Once the product has been published, it will be visible in the Never Ordered and Recently Published folders of the Macaos Enterprise Product Browser, for pricing and order placement.

Panel drawing

A panel drawing, in PDF format, may be generated for the current panel configuration. The drawing shows the locations and x/y coordinates of each board on the panel, as well as each drill hole, fiducial mark and bad mark.

Before generating the panel drawing, it is possible to specify text for the various fields of the drawing's title block.

There are two options available when generating a panel drawing:

Add dimension lines to panel drawing: If selected, then the drawing will include dimension lines showing the locations of fiducials, tooling holes, bad marks, etc. Dimension lines for the panel size are always included in the drawing.

Include slots and break-off tabs in panel drawing: If selected, then break-off tab holes and the outlines of all routed slots are drawn. If not selected, then only the board outlines are drawn.

The panel drawing is also included with the product files when the panel is published, and is therefore available from the Macaos Enterprise Product Browser.

Surface mounted components are frequently placed on a circuit board by an automatic placement machine, typically called a Pick and Place (PnP) machine. A PnP data file is used to instruct the machine where to place each component on the board prior to soldering. PnP data consists of a designator, x and y coordinates, a rotation and a description for each automatically placed component. The location of fiducial marks should also included in the PnP data.

PnP data may be added to a product in the following ways:

• Import a PnP file together with the Gerber and Drill data.

• Import a PnP file directly into the Assembly Data Manager.

• PnP data may be added manually, component by component.

Pick and Place Data Manager

The Pick and Place data tab of the Assembly Data Manager lists components to the left of a graphic viewer. Use the check boxes at the top to show or hide components on one or both sides of the board.

Double-click on a component in the list to locate a component in the viewer. The viewer will zoom to show the component centered in an area of about 25 x 25 mm.

The check boxes in the component list determine whether or not the component is to be included for automatic placement. Only components with a check mark are shown in the viewer.

It is possible to change the check box state of multiple components by selecting the desired components in the list, right-clicking, and choosing Toggle selected components.

Right-click and choose Edit component to modify the properties of a component in the PnP data.

There are four action buttons:

• Import a Pick and Place data file – Import a text file
• Save changes to product – Updates the Pick&Place layer in the product.
• Align Pick and Place data with board data – Align the data if they do not have the same origin.
• Add component to Pick and Place data – Manually add a component to the list.

Importing a Pick and Place file

Click on the Import button and select the file to import. Its contents will be added to the component list and shown in the viewer. It may be necessary to specify to which side of the board the imported data applies.

A number of Pick and place file formats, (such as those from Allegro, Altium, Cadstar, Kicad, OrCad and PADS) are automatically parsed.

If the file format is not immediately recognized, then it may be specified in the Pick and Place Data Import dialog box, which displays the original file contents, parsed file contents and the interpreted XYR data.

The following may be specified:

• Number of header lines

• First character of comment lines

• Separated or fixed-width columns

• Separator and quote characters (for separated files)

• Column widths (for fixed-width files)

• Unit of measure for X and Y coordinates

• Angle rotation direction (counter-clockwise or clockwise)

• Column mapping. (Up to 3 columns may be combined as the component description.)

Aligning Pick and Place data with board data

If the origin of the PnP data does not match that of the board data, it can be aligned as follows:

1. Click on the Align button so that it is active.

2. In the viewer, left-click and draw a selection rectangle around a PnP symbol (cross with arrow). A rubber-band line stretches from the component to the mouse pointer.

3. Left-click and draw a new selection rectangle around all pads of the selected component. The component will be moved to the center of a rectangle exactly enclosing the selected pads.

4. Check that the PnP data is correctly aligned. If not, repeat steps 1-3 with a different component.

Note: If PnP data for a side is not visible, then it will not be moved. In this manner, it is possible to aling PnP data for the top and bottom sides independently of each other.

Adding a component to the Pick and Place data

PnP data may be created manually, as follows:

1. Click on the Add component button so that it is active.

2. In the viewer, left-click and draw a selection rectangle around all pads of the component. The component will be placed at the center of a rectangle exactly enclosing the selected pads.

3. In the Add Pick and Place component dialog box, specify the layer, designator, rotation and description of the component. Clicking the OK button creates the PnP component.

4. Repeat steps 1-3 as for each additional component.

Saving changes

If you have made any changes to the PnP data, including using the check boxes to show/hide individual components, then you must save your changes to the PCB product. Click on the Save button to save the changes in the product and update the product in the Macaos Repository.

The check boxes at the top of the panel specify the layer(s) for which stencils will be created.

If no product has been selected, then the Load buttons may be used to import Gerber or DXF data for the stencil(s) to create. The Load top and Load bottom buttons import the stencil opening data for the top and bottom layers respectively. The Load outline button may be used to load a board outline for use when centering in the stencil frame. Note: Only limited import of DXF data is supported. DXF entities that do not easily map to Gerber-style objects are ignored.

Select frame

Select a frame for the stencil product. You may choose from one of the active frames in the list or define your own frame using the Frame Manager.

Alternatively, a frame may be generated from product data in the following manner:

1. Click on the Select from data button (so that it is down)

2. Select a layer that contains the stencil frame outline. Note: Only visible layers are listed.

3. Draw a selection rectangle around some portion of the outline.

Note: The frame outline must be a closed polygon outline (a closed end-to-end chain of line segments without gaps or overlap). If necessary, use the Delete frame button to delete the frame.

If desired, use the Rotate frame button to rotate the frame relative to the board data.

Stencil specifications

The stencil size is normally determined by the selected frame. If no frame is selected then it must be specified.

The stencil thickness is normally determined by the selected frame. If desired, this may be changed as needed. If no frame is selected then a thickness must be chosen. The recommended maximum stencil thickness is calculated from the Aspect ratio and Area ratio of the smallest stencil apertures.

The stencil type is normally determined by the selected frame. All types other than Normal are licensed or patented frame patterns that are usually related to specific frame sizes.

Set a check mark by the Coated option if the stencil should be coated (e.g. nano-coating) to improve hole wall smoothness and paste release. The actual coating process may vary from supplier to supplier. This is an extra cost option.

Set a check mark by the Polish option if the walls of stencil openings should be electro-polished, to improve smoothness. This is usually a standard option, but may incur an extra cost with some suppliers.

Set a check mark by the Protect frame option if the frame edges are to be protected (typically to help operators avoid cutting their hands on the stencil edges). For normal stencil types, this would typically be folding the frame edges back. For some stencil types there are more advanced protection methods, such as the LPKF Protect System.

A Bill of Materials (BOM) is a list of the components that are to be used with the printed circuit board. The BOM is used to select and purchase the correct components as well as to specify where each component should be placed on the printed circuit board.

Frequently, a BOM generated by a CAD system or inventory system may not contain enough information for an Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider to accurately select the correct components. This can lead to delays, as additional communication between the EMS provider and their client becomes necessary to clear up any questions that may arise.

The BOM Manager may be used to check a BOM against a database of known components. Where single matches are found, there should be no doubt as to which component to select. Where multiple matches are found, the user is encouraged to choose a suitable component from among those components which match the given specifications.

The stencil data may either be placed relative to the center of the frame or the frame edge.

If there is solder paste data for both sides of the board, then you may choose to include openings for both sides of the board on the same stencil by marking the Place top and bottom data on one stencil check box. You may also choose to add text indicating which set of openings applies to which side of the PCB.

If you do not choose to place top and bottom data on one stencil, then two stencil products will be created when you publish. When creating two stencils, you may choose either to place the data at the same location on each stencil, or specify individual locations for the top and bottom data. If individual locations are chosen, then you may choose to separate the two sides either horizontally or vertically. Use the Swap left/right data position check box to swap the positions of the two layers.

If the data is placed relative to the center of the frame, then an offset may be specified. You may also choose between anchoring the data either to the center of the board outline or the center of the solder paste openings. If top and bottom data is specified with individual locations, then you should specify the distance between the two boards.

If the data is placed relative to the frame edge, then you must specify offsets. You may choose either to specify offset from the frame edge to the farthest board edge or from the frame edge to the nearest board edge. (If there is data for both sides of the board, then there will be two offsets, one from each edge of the frame.)

Normally, the bottom side data will be mirrored so that the bottom side of the stencil will be in contact with the board, regardless of which side of the board will have solder paste applied. This may be disabled by unmarking the Mirror bottom data check box. You may also choose between horizontal and vertical mirroring.

Remarks are comments or information that is attached to a specific position in the product. Macaos Enterprise supports a graphic layer for remarks. This layer is visible together with the other layers in the product viewer. It is also exported as a separate Gerber file when data is transmitted to a manufacturer. In this way, remarks will always follow the product data, so that all parties will be informed about the remark.

Remarks may be created in the Import Module when importing a product to Macaos Enterprise. They may also be created or modified in the Assembly Data Manager Module.

There are four action buttons:

• Save changes to product – Updates the Remarks layer in the product
• Add a remark to the board – Create a new remark
• Edit selected remark text – Modify the text of a remark. You can only change one line of text at a time. You can only modify text that has been created during the current editing session.
• Delete remarks – Delete remarks from the Remarks layer.

The remarks layer is stored as Gerber data in the product. Since the Gerber format does not support complex objects, all text is converted to individual lines and arcs. For this reason it is not possible to edit the text of a remark after it has been stored. Instead, you must delete the remark and create a new remark.

Creating a new remark

To create a new remark, do the following:

1. Click on the button to activate the button.

2. Draw a circle around the area on the board to which the remark applies.

3. Enter the text of the remark in the Place remark dialog box. Add line breaks as appropriate. The text will be placed to the right of the circle.

4. Click OK to complete creation of the remark.

Opening size adjustment

Stencil openings are adjusted as a percentage (by area) of the reference pad size. The reference pad is either the copper layer pad or the original paste mask data pad, depending on the selected Adjustment reference.

Specify the desired percentage prior to executing an adjustment operation. A negative percentage results in an opening that is smaller than the reference pad. Repeated opening adjustments are not cumulative.

You should first adjust all openings to the adjusted size that applies to the majority of openings. Then you may re-adjust individual openings by selecting them and applying the desired adjustment.

To adjust openings, specify the percentage, select Adjust all, Adjust selected top or Adjust selected bottom and then click on the Apply button.

Use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the openings to select. Only openings on the chosen layer are selected. The selection modes are described in the Graphic display section.

To undo all adjustments, adjust all openings to 0%.

Show Adjustments

As each opening size adjustment is carried out, the operation is added to the list of adjustments. Clicking on a row in the list causes all openings with the selected adjustment to be highlighted in the graphic display.

Corner rounding

Specify the desired radius for the corners of rectangular openings. You should specify a radius approximately equal to the radius of the solder grains in the solder paste.

Potential errors

Opening sizes are compared with the original paste mask layers for potential errors, such as openings that were already reduced in the original data or openings where the reference copper pad was not found. If a Potential errors button is enabled, click on the button and inspect the highlighted openings to see if there are any actual errors.

If the paste mask data includes fiducial marks, these should be selected and marked as fiducials. Fiducial marks are etched into the stencil rather than being cut all the way through.

Manual fiducial selection

Choose a layer and click the Select fiducials button (so that it is down). Use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the openings to select. Only objects on the chosen layer are selected. The selection modes are described in the Graphic display section.

All highlighted objects will be treated as fiducials when the production data is generated. Note: If a copper layer is chosen, then the selected fiducials will be copied from the copper layer to the stencil.

Assumed and panel fiducials

Assumed fiducials are round objects in the paste mask data with a diameter between 0.8 mm and 1.2 mm. If any such objects are found on a layer, the corresponding button is enabled.

Panel frame fiducials are stencil fiducials that were defined in the Panel module. If any such fiducials are defined for a layer, the corresponding button is enabled.

Clicking on a Show fiducials button highlights the fiducials and opens a menu with 3 or 4 options:

• Set all to fiducials marks all highlighted objects to be etched rather than cut.

• Delete all removes all highlighted objects from the stencil data

• Cut as normal holes marks all highlighted objects to be cut rather than etched.

• Edit the selection (Assumed fiducials only) lets you select which objects are highlighted.

If Warn for possible fiducials is checked, a warning will be generated if any assumed fiducials (that are not marked as fiducials) are found in the stencil data when publishing.

Once your PnP and BOM data are ready, you can send a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for purchasing and assembly of your PCB to any participating Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider. This is a quick and easy way to get your PCB into production, since Macaos Enterprise makes the necessary information available to your partners in a reliable and orderly manner.

Generating an RFQ for assembly does 3 things:

1. If one does not already exist, a partnership is created between your company and each EMS provider.

2. The product is shared with each EMS provider. If not already shared, then the product is shared with Quote visibility for 10 days.

3. A message is sent to each EMS provider informing them of your RFQ. The message is also visible in the EMS provider's Macaos Enterprise, together with your product data.

Icons in the EMS provider list indicate:

• if you have already shared the product with the EMS provider

• if the EMS provider is already your partner, but the product hasn't been shared with them

• the location of the EMS provider

There are several bits of information that must be gathered before you can send an RFQ. Missing or inadequate information is flagged with an û and an error message.

Once everything is ready, the message to the EMS providers is shown, as well as a list of actions (creating partnerships and shares, and sending RFQs) to perform. Click on the Submit RFQ button to perform these actions.

You may specify up to 3 different quantities and up to 3 different delivery dates for your quotations.

Normally, the EMS provider will purchase the boards and components for you. In the options section, you may choose to do some of your own purchasing.

Normally, EMS providers will respond by e-mail within two working days. If you choose to accept a quotation from one of the Macaos system EMS providers, you will need to contact them directly to place your order. You should also change the product share for that partner, giving them Order or Manuf visibility and extending the lifetime of the share. See the Product sharing chapter for more information.

If a product is shared to an EMS provider with Quote visibility, then your partner will be able to view your PnP data and BOM list, but they will not be able to export that data from Macaos Enterprise.

Note: It is not possible to generate an RFQ for a product that a partner has shared with you.

Often it is desirable to split a large stencil opening into an array of smaller openings. This can give better control over the total amount of solder paste deposited on a large pad.

Choose a layer and then use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the opening to split. (You may only select one opening.) Only openings on the chosen layer are selected. The selection modes are described in the Graphic display section.

You can use the Highlight large pads button to help you locate pads that should be split. All pads whose width and height are larger than the Min size value will be highlighted.

Note: You may select only one opening to edit. If you select more than one pad, or if an opening is made up of several overlapping graphic objects, then you may choose to treat the selected objects as a single rectangle surrounding all selected objects. In such cases, it may afterwards be necessary to delete some of the small openings created by the split operation.

Once the desired openings have been selected, click on the Split or replace openings button to open the Split or replace stencil opening editor. The un-split opening is shown in red and the new openings are shown in magenta.

Note: The red opening is the un-split opening size, not the copper pad size.

You may choose between several options to split or replace the pad. For each New shape type you may specify the size and placement of the replacement openings to meet your specific needs.

The Original opening and New opening(s) statistics calculate how your proposed changes will affect the opening size (and thereby the amount of solder paste) for the pad.

Once you are satisfied, click on the Replace opening button to replace the selected opening(s).

Edit shapes width/height

If necessary, the height and width of individual stencil openings may be adjusted.

Choose a layer and then use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the openings to adjust. Only openings on the chosen layer are selected. The selection modes are described in the Graphic display section.

Specify the desired width and height adjustments as a percentage of the original width/height and then click on the Apply button.

Note: For purposes of this operation, the width is always the shortest dimension of the opening, regardless of whether the “width” is horizontal or vertical. In the same manner the height is always the longest dimension of the opening.

Free text

Enter a text and click the Place text button. Click at the desired location on the stencil to place the text. The Clear free text button may be used to remove all free texts.

Frame text

If there is text defined in the stencil frame, Move and Delete buttons may be used to move or delete text from the stencil.

Mark objects as text

If the paste mask data includes text, it should be selected and marked as text. Text is etched into the stencil rather than being cut all the way through.

Choose a layer and click the Mark button (so that it is down) and then select the text objects. All highlighted objects will be treated as text when the production data is generated. In the same manner, use the Unmark button to unmark text objects.

Product identification

By default the stencils are given the same name, article number and description as the PCB product on which they are based, but these may be modified, if desired.

If the stencil data contains objects that should not be included in the stencil, these should be deleted.

Choose a layer and then use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the openings to delete. Only openings on the chosen layer are selected. The selection modes are described in the Graphic display section. Click on the Delete selected button to delete the highlighted objects.

If necessary, the Undelete objects button may be used to restore all deleted objects.

In some cases it may be desirable to “step” a stencil (that is, reduce the thickness of a region of a stencil), in order to better control the amount of solder paste to be applied.

Stencil thickness is reduced in a region by etching the region until the region's thickness has been reduced to the desired thickness. This is done prior to cutting openings in the stencil.

To define reduced thickness regions, specify the side and thickness for the region, select a placement method, click on the Create region button (so that it is down) and then draw (or place) a rectangle on the stencil to define the region.

The region thickness should be defined as the desired thickness for the specified region.

Typically, etching will be done from the squeegee (top) side of the stencil, leaving a flat surface against the PCB. But in some cases, such as when there is a sticker on the PCB, it may be desirable to etch a region from the PCB (bottom) side.

There are three methods for placing a reduced thickness region:

Region by mouse select: Draw a selection rectangle on the stencil to define the region. The region boundaries must be at least 0.5mm from any stencil openings or other regions on the stencil.

Fixed size region: Specify the region dimensions and then place the rectangle where desired.

Region by elements and oversize: Specify an oversize dimension (in mm) and then draw a selection rectangle around the objects to be included in the region.

• Paste layer: The objects will be selected from the paste mask top or bottom layer

• Layer in layer list: The objects will be selected from the highlighted layer

• by boundbox: The region will be created as a rectangle with a clearance of at least the specified oversize dimension from the selected objects on all sides

• by objects: The region will be the specified oversize dimension larger than the selected objects on all size, following the shape(s) of the selected objects.

To remove a region from the stencil, click on the Remove region button (so that it is in the down position), select the region thickness and then draw a selection rectangle around any portion of the region(s) to remove. Once you have removed the regions you wish to delete, click the Remove region button again to exit delete mode.

Note: Creating reduced thickness regions will increase the cost of the stencil.

Objects may be copied from any other layer to a stencil layer. To do so:

1. Select the Destination layer (the stencil layer to which the object will be added).

2. Select a source layer from the list. Note: Only visible layers are listed.

3. Specify the size of the copy. Choosing 1:1 creates a copy with the same size as the original. Choosing Oversize creates a copy whose height and width are increased as specified.

4. Use the left mouse button to draw a selection rectangle around the openings to copy. Only openings on the chosen layer are selected. The selection modes are described in the Graphic display section.

5. Click on the Accept button to copy the selected objects.

The Undo transfers button deletes all objects that have been transferred from other layers.

It is possible to modify stencil openings by component footprint. Non-symmetric openings (such as home plate or bow tie shapes) are automatically oriented correctly for pads on each side of the component. This operation can be performed on a single component or on multiple components with the same footprint.

Note: Component footprint editing is only supported for PCBs where test pad data is available. If test pad data (in IPC-D-356 format) was not imported when the product was created, it may be added to the product in the Assembly Data Manager.

When an active side is chosen, the paste mask openings are mapped to the test pad data, in order to determine which openings belong to the same component. Based on this, a list of components (grouped by the selected grouping parameters) is displayed.

Select one or more components in a group and click on the Highlight selected components button to zoom to and highlight the components. Then click on the Edit openings button to open the Split or edit stencil openings dialog box. Clicking on the Replace openings button in the dialog box copies the new opening parameters to all openings of all selected components. If the footprint has multiple opening sizes/shapes (or either of the Group options is unchecked) then use the Prev/Next buttons to edit each of the different shapes in the footprint. Note: You can double-click on a group to zoom, highlight and open the editor in a single operation.

Each component in the list has a blue icon, which indicates the type of footprint. Once a component has been edited, it gets a pink icon which indicates the opening shape. Use the Hide edited components check box to exclude components from the list after they have been edited.

If desired, you can locate components by designator with the filter text at the bottom of the list. When the list is filtered, then the Highlight all components in list button will zoom to and highlight all of the components in the filtered list.

Note: Do not confuse test pads with test points or test pins.

• Test pads are the locations for bare-board testing of the PCB during manufacture, which are extracted from an IPC-D-356 file to the Test pads layers.

• Test points are specific pads or pins on the PCBA which would be used for in-circuit testing. For each test point, a “component” (with the Test point component class) should be added to the appropriate component layer. Ideally, test points (with TPxx designators) should be included in Pick and Place data, but they may also be created manually.

• Test pins are the pins in a test fixture which will make contact with the PCBA during in-circuit testing.

A stencil frame is the Gerber data describing the outer edge, openings and text that should be added to a stencil product. Frames may be annotated with the product number, product name, product article number and/or product owner. In the frame itself, these texts are shown as placeholders. When the frame is used with a stencil product, the product values are substituted into the frame at the specified position.

The first time a stencil is created, the user may choose a generic frame or define a new frame. If a generic frame is chosen, a frame definition will automatically be created for future use.

Stencil Frame Manager

The Stencil Frame Manager lists the frame definitions which are available for use. These frames are available to all users within the same company. The check boxes specify which frames appear in the selection list in the Stencil Product Creator.

To create a new stencil frame, click the Add new button, which opens the Stencil Frame Editor.

To edit an existing frame, select the frame in the list and click the Edit button. This opens the Stencil Frame Editor in Edit mode. In this mode, it is only possible to modify the frame properties.

To delete a frame, select the frame in the list and click the Delete frame button.

Stencil Frame Editor

The Stencil Frame Editor is used to specify the outline, contents and properties of a stencil frame. Once a frame has been created, it will be available for use by anyone in your company.

Frame data

A new stencil frame may be based on a frame template or data from a Gerber file. Macaos Enterprise has several frame templates, which fall into 3 categories:

• Generic frames define only an outer rectangle and perhaps annotation text
• Licensed frames are copyrighted frames which are pre-cut by the steel supplier
• Standard frames are frames for commonly used solder paste application equipment

Choose whether to use a template or a Gerber file. If using a template, select the desired template.

Frame properties

When creating a frame from a Gerber file, the frame size is automatically set to the bounding box of all objects in the Gerber file. Therefore, the Gerber file should not contain any objects outside of the stencil boundary.

When creating a frame based on a generic frame template, the frame size must be specified.

When creating a frame based on any other frame template, the frame size remains unchanged.

A name should be specified for the new frame. In addition, a default thickness and default shape adjustment (% area reduction) may be specified for use when a stencil product using this frame is created.

Frame text

If desired, annotations and text may be added to the frame. Select the texts to add and click on the Place text button (so that it is down) and then click at the position where the lower left corner of the text string is to be placed. If several texts are selected, they will be placed in a left-justified column.

The Clear text button removes all text from the frame.

Once the frame has been defined, click on the Save and Close button to save the frame.

Usable area

Typically, the solder paste squeegee can only be used on the center portion of a stencil. If desired, a rectangle to display the usable area may be added to a stencil frame.

Enter the width and height of the usable area, and then click on the Add rectangle button to add a rectangle to the Keep in paste layer. Use the Clear rectangle(s) button to delete all such rectangles. Note: When a template frame is selected, the width and height are automatically set to give a 10% margin around the usable area.

Usable area rectangles are shown when creating a stencil, to assist with placing the PCB. They are, however, not included in the final stencil.

A solder paste stencil may be automatically created with a script. An autostencil script automatically generates a stencil by selecting the appropriate frame and stencil thickness, board placement, fiducials and stencil opening adjustment as specified in the script. In many cases, a stencil can be generated with one click!

Use the Autostencil|Create script from current settings command to create a script based on the current settings in the Stencil module, for example just after setting up a standard stencil.

The MacaosDemo script is supplied with the program. This script will create a 150 µm stencil with 15% global reduction of stencil openings. To modify this script or create additional scripts, open the script manager.

The available scripts are listed at the top of the left column. Clicking on a script name loads the selected script so that its properties may be viewed or modified. These properties include:

• Select frame or size: The frame or size of the stencil

• Stencil thickness: The thickness of the stencil

• Placement of board within frame: The location of the board on the stencil.

• Double-sided stencil: Specifies if both board sides should be on one stencil.

• Mirroring of bottom data: Specifies if and how bottom side data is mirrored.

• Fiducial detection: Specifies if and how objects in the stencil data should be treated as fiducials rather than openings.

• Adjustment of stencil openings: Specifies global adjustment of opening sizes and corner radius for stencil openings.

Additional operations (such as adjustment of individual openings, split openings, reduced thickness regions, text operations and deletion of objects) must be carried out after the script has been run.

Use the buttons at the bottom of the Scripts pane save scripts. Right-click in the scripts list to delete, rename, import or export a script. Note: If a stencil script has the same name as a panel script, then a stencil will automatically be created after creating a panel with that script.

Scripts are stored together with the user's program settings. To share a script with another user, export the script to a file and send the file to the other user for import into their script manager.

There may also be scripts available for download at www.macaos.com/support/panelscripts.

PnP data is usually generated by the CAD system used to design the PCB. If PnP data is not available, it can be created manually.

Typically, PnP data consists of four, five or six values per component:

• Designator
• X position (typically in mm, inch or mil)
• Y position (same unit of measure)
• Rotation in degrees (usually counter-clockwise)
• Description (perhaps in several columns)
• Side (top or bottom; bottom sometimes called mirrored)

Click on the Import button in the Pick and place actions toolbar to select a PnP file for import. Alternatively, click on the small down-arrow in the lower right corner of the button to import a file which is already attached to the product.

Some CAD systems generate separate top and bottom PnP files. In this case, use the Bottom button to import the bottom side PnP file.

Macaos automatically imports several PnP formats. For those which are not recognized, or which have some level of ambiguity, the Pick and Place Data Import dialog box helps to specify how the data should be interpreted for import.

• If necessary, the source content may be edited, either directly in the text of the source file, or in individual cells of the parsed file.
• If necessary, specify the number of header rows to ignore, and the prefix character for comment lines.
• Specify whether the input file has delimited or fixed-width columns. For delimited columns, specify the delimiter character (and quotation character, if necessary). For fixed-width columns, specify the column widths.
• Specify the unit of measure used for X and Y coordinates. If incorrectly specified, the scale of the component layer will not match the scale of the PCB.
• Specify whether rotations are clockwise or counter-clockwise. Normally, bottom side component rotations should be imported in the opposite direction. If this doesn’t work with your file format, remove the check mark from Rotate bottom opposite.
• Normally, bottom side rotations are flipped horizontally (around the Y-axis). For PnP files which flip the rotation vertically (around the X-axis), such as those from Altium, set a check mark at Flip bottom vertically.
• Specify the input column numbers for each output field.

If there are components that might need further attention after import, set a check mark by each of them. This will create a component alert, and the component will be highlighted with red text in the component list. Note: Component alerts are not saved with the product. You should resolve all alerts before closing the ADM.

Once the data format has been correctly specified, click the OK button to import the data.

If necessary, align the component layer with the PCB.

Fiducial marks

Most Pick and Place systems expect there to be three fiducial marks on the board, typically near each of three corners. The locations of these fiducial marks need to be included in the PnP data.

If the board does not have dedicated fiducial marks, other optically distinct features, such as through-hole pads, may be used. Note: Via holes covered with solder mask are usually not suitable as fiducial marks.

1. Left-click and draw a rectangle around the pad to use as a fiducial mark.
2. The fiducial mark is added at the center of the selected pad.

Note: If a pad (from the originally imported Gerber data) is drawn (as one or more wide lines/arcs) rather than flashed (as a single shape object) then it will not be identified as a pad in the above procedure. In cases where no pads are found within the selection rectangle, the (center of the) selection rectangle is used.

Creating PnP data manually

If PnP data is not available for a component, it may be created manually, as follows:

1. If a similar component already exists, select it in the component list to copy its properties to the new component.
2. Left-click and draw a rectangle around all pads of the component to create.
3. Specify the component designator and (if desired) specify that component properties should be copied from the selected component. The new component designator must be unique.
4. The component is added at the center of the selected pads.

Tip: Import BOM data prior to creating components manually. Components found in the BOM data which do not exist in the PnP data are automatically created and placed to the left of the PCB. They may then be moved to their correct position.

Note: If a component pad (from the originally imported Gerber data) is drawn (as one or more wide lines/arcs) rather than flashed (as a single shape object) then it will not be identified as a pad in the above procedure. In cases where no pads are found within the selection rectangle, the (center of the) selection rectangle is used.

Usually, the coordinates in an imported PnP file will have the same origin as the PCB. If not, then the component layer must be aligned with the PCB data, as follows:

1. Left-click and draw a rectangle around a component in the component layer. Once selected, a rubber-band stretches from the component to the mouse pointer.
2. Left-click and draw a rectangle around all of that component's pads on the PCB.
3. The selected component is moved to the center of the selected pads, and all other components are moved the same distance.

Tip: It is often easiest to choose a relatively large hole-mounted component that does not have any vias near the boundaries of the rectangle that encloses the component's pads.

Note: If a component pad (from the originally imported Gerber data) is drawn (as one or more wide lines/arcs) rather than flashed (as a single shape object) then it will not be identified as a pad in the above procedure. In cases where no pads are found within the selection rectangle, the (center of the) selection rectangle is used.

BOM data is typically a list of components and their properties. It's main purpose is to specify the components for purchasing. Macaos can import BOM data from a text file or from an Excel .xls spreadsheet file. In both cases, the data must be in a table form, where each row represents a component and each column represents a single component property (such as designator, manufacturer part number, value, etc).

Click on the Import button in the Bill of materials actions toolbar to select a BOM file for import. Alternatively, click on the small down-arrow in the lower right corner of the button to import a file which is already attached to the product.

A spreadsheet file is loaded directly into the Import BOM dialog box. When importing a text file, the format must first be specified (much like when importing PnP data). It is also possible to copy data from an open spreadsheet directly into the Source BOM file grid (by right-clicking the cell that will become the top left corner of the pasted data).

To import the BOM, do the following:

• If necessary, specify the number of header rows to ignore, and the prefix character for comment lines to ignore.
• Where possible, the column contents are automatically identified. (This may not always be accurate, so automatic column mappings should be checked.)
• Specify the input column mapping for the remaining output fields by clicking on source column headers and selecting the column contents. For the Value, Package, Description, and Additional info output columns, multiple input columns may be mapped. This is also true for the Supplier/SKU fields and the Alternate MPN/Manufacturer fields.
• Specify parameters for individual columns, as necessary.

Designator: If the designator field lists multiple designators, specify the separator character (typically a comma, semicolon or space). The import module automatically converts designator ranges like C2-4 or C2..4 to individual designators (C2, C3 and C4). Set a check mark on Allow – or .. in designator to prevent designator range conversion.

Value: Any number of source columns may be mapped to the Value column. The contents of the source columns will be concatenated, separated by a space character.

Description: Any number of source columns may be mapped to the Description column. The contents of the source columns will be concatenated, separated by a space character.

Mounting style: If a column is mapped, you must specify an SMD text and a Thru-hole text. Components which match one of these texts will be assigned a mounting style of SMD or TH (respectively). The mounting style will remain unassigned for components which do not match.
If no column is mapped, you may select a default mounting style, which will be applied to all components (except connectors). A separate default style may be specified for connectors.

Do not place: Specify a Do not place text. Components which match this text will be marked as not to be installed.

Additional info: Any number of source columns may be mapped to the Additional info column. The contents of the source columns will be concatenated to the component’s Original description property, separated by a space character. (The Original description property is the normally the component description imported from Pick and Place data.)

Supplier name and SKU: Supplier names and SKUs must be paired. They can be taken from a single source column or from pairs of source columns. If there are multiple values in a column, then a delimiter text must be specified. Typical delimiters are comma, semicolon or space.

• If the supplier name and SKU are in a single column, specify the source column as the Supplier SKU column and specify the character that separates the names and SKUs. (The supplier name column must not be mapped.) 
  For a single pair, the column content must be Name<delimiter>SKU. 
  For multiple pairs: Name<delimiter>SKU<delimiter>Name<delimiter>SKU...
• If the source has separate columns for supplier name and SKU, specify both source columns. If each column has multiple values, then specify the character that separates the values. It is also possible to map multiple pairs of columns.

Alternate part numbers: Manufacturer names and MPNs must be paired. They can be taken from a single source column or from pairs of source columns. If there are multiple values in a column, then a delimiter text must be specified. Typical delimiters are comma, semicolon or space.

• If the alternate manufacturer name and part number are in a single column, specify the source column as the Alternate MPN column and specify the character that separates the names and SKUs. (The Alternate manufacturer column must not be mapped.) 
  For a single pair, the column content must be Name<delimiter>MPN. 
  For multiple pairs: Name<delimiter>MPN<delimiter>Name<delimiter>MPN...
• If the source has separate columns for manufacturer name and MPN, specify both source columns. If each column has multiple values, then specify the character that separates the values. It is also possible to map multiple pairs of columns.

It is possible to edit the text in either grid, by clicking on a cell and entering the desired text. You can change the text in an entire column, or in selected cells, by right-clicking on the grid. It is also possible to add an extra column to the source grid (for example, to add mounting style data). Note: In most cases, it is best to edit the source grid, since changes to the parsed grid will be lost if any of the column mapping parameters are changed.

Check off for Save settings to store column mapping parameters as default values for future BOM import. Click on the Clear stored settings button to reset all column mapping parameters and default values.

If there are components that might need further attention after import, set a check mark by each of them. This will create a component alert, and the component will be highlighted with red text in the component list. Note: Component alerts are not saved with the product. You should resolve all alerts before closing the ADM.

Components may be automatically marked as allowing equivalent or better alternates to the specified manufacturer part number if any of the Mark as Equivalent or better boxes are checked. By default, all components of the specified type(s) will be marked. To exclude components from being so marked, their designators should be listed in the except list, separated by commas (without spaces).

Once the data format has been correctly specified, click the OK button to import the data.

Components in the BOM which do not already exist on a component layer are automatically placed in a 10 mm grid to the left of the PCB. These should be moved to their correct location.

When a component is imported without a location, it is automatically placed to the left of the PCB on a 10 mm grid. These components should be moved to their correct location, as follows:

1. Left-click and draw a rectangle around the component to move. Once selected, a rubber-band stretches from the component to the mouse pointer.
2. Left-click and draw a rectangle around all of that component's pads on the PCB.
3. The component is moved to the center of the selected pads.

Note: If a component pad (from the originally imported Gerber data) is drawn (as one or more wide lines/arcs) rather than flashed (as a single shape object) then it will not be identified as a pad in the above procedure. In cases where no pads are found within the selection rectangle, the (center of the) selection rectangle is used.

The component outline and location of the key pin are important visual cues for the operators who mount components on a PCB. This is especially true for polarized components with a symmetrical footprint.

Outlines

Component outlines typically follow one of four patterns:

• Body tightly encloses the component body
• Lead-to-lead encloses the component body and all component leads
• Footprint tightly encloses all of the component pads
• Courtyard encloses the footprint and the component body

By default, Footprint outlines are created, though this may be overridden by pressing the Ctrl key to create a Body outline. The procedure is:

1. Double-click on a component in the component list to select it and make it visible in the viewer.
2. Left-click and draw a rectangle around all of the component pads. A Footprint outline (which tightly encloses the selected pads) is created.
3. If you press Ctrl when drawing, then instead the drawn rectangle becomes the Body outline.
4. The outline will be applied to all instances of the selected component.

Note: If a component pad (from the originally imported Gerber data) is drawn (as one or more wide lines/arcs) rather than flashed (as a single shape object) then it will not be identified as a pad in the above procedure. In cases where no pads are found within the selection rectangle, the selection rectangle is used to define a Body outline.

Right-click on a component or component instance to delete it's outline. If an instance is chosen, then only that instance's outline will be deleted. If a component is chosen then the outline will be deleted from all instances of that component.

Key pins

The key pin of a component is pin 1, pin A1, Cathode or Plus. Marking the location of the key pin gives operators a reliable visual reference to the component rotation. This is especially important for PnP components, to help insure that the specified rotation is correct when programming the automatic placement machine.

IPC-7351 specifies the most commonly used definition of component orientation. For an unrotated component, when viewed from above, the key pin is at the left (for 2-pin components). For multi-pin components it is near the upper left corner (or upper center) of the component outline.

To mark the key pin of a component, do the following:

1. Double-click on a component in the component list to select it and make it visible in the viewer.
2. Left-click and draw a rectangle around the pad for pin 1 (or A1 or Cathode or Plus).
3. The key pin will be marked for all instances of the selected component.

Note: If a component pad (from the originally imported Gerber data) is drawn (as one or more wide lines/arcs) rather than flashed (as a single shape object) then it will not be identified as a pad in the above procedure. In cases where no pads are found within the selection rectangle, the (center of the) selection rectangle is used.

Right-click on a component or component instance to delete it's key pin. If an instance is chosen, then only that instance's key pin will be deleted. If a component is chosen then the key pin will be deleted from all instances of that component.

When opening an IPC-D-356 file, the test pads for both the top and bottom sides are extracted to the Test pads top and Test pads bottom layers, respectively. The net name, designator and pin number is also extracted for each test pad. Other information in the IPC-D-356 file is ignored.

Most CAD systems can generate an IPC-D-356 file, which contains important information for electrical test of the bare PCB during manufacture. Since only a subset of this information is imported to the test pads layers, the complete file is also attached to the product, so that it is available to the manufacturer.

Note: Do not confuse test pads with test points or test pins.

• Test pads are the locations for bare-board testing of the PCB during manufacture, which are extracted from an IPC-D-356 file to the Test pads layers.

• Test points are specific pads or pins on the PCBA which would be used for in-circuit testing. For each test point, a “component” (with the Test point component class) should be added to the appropriate component layer. Ideally, test points (with TPxx designators) should be included in Pick and Place data, but they may also be created manually.

• Test pins are the pins in a test fixture which will make contact with the PCBA during in-circuit testing.

Merge action

For each component on a component layers, the corresponding test pad layer is scanned for test pads with a matching designator.

• A Footprint outline is derived from the outlines of all pins.

• If the component has more than two pins, then pin 1 or pin A1 is marked as the key pin. If there is no pin 1 or pin A1, then pin B1, A2 or B2 is marked (if found).

• If the component has two pins, if one of the pins has a pin number beginning with K or C (for cathode) or P (for plus), it is marked as the key pin. Otherwise, no key pin is marked.

Component properties are shown in the column between the component list and the graphic viewer. Which properties may be edited depends on which level in the component list is chosen. Component properties may be edited as follows:

1. Select a component in the component list, right-click and choose Edit component (or press Ctrl+E). This puts the ADM module in edit mode. Alternatively, choose Search component (or press Ctrl+O) to enter edit mode and open the component search module in a single operation.
2. Edit properties as necessary.
3. After making necessary changes, click on the OK buttonor press Ctrl+S to update the component.

Note: There is nothing to edit when the component class level is chosen.

Editing a component instance

When editing a component instance, the Rotation, Include in PnP output and Do not place properties may be edited. Once these properties are confirmed to be correct, the instance should be marked as Approved for placement.

Component instances which have been approved for placement display a blue check mark in the component list. If all instances have been approved, a blue check mark is shown at the component level as well.

Each component instance also displays a placement icon, based on the component layer and the state of the Include in PnP output and Do not place properties. Note: The Mounting style property does not affect the placement icon.

Editing a component

When editing a component, the bill of materials and process parameter properties may be edited.A primary goal when preparing a BOM is that each component be unambiguously specified, preferably with a complete manufacturer part number. For components (such as resistors) where a specific manufacturer is not critical, then all necessary parameters should be specified so that there will be no doubt which component the purchaser should acquire.

For components (such as resistors) where a specific manufacturer is not critical, the component may be marked as Equivalent or better by use of the check box or by right-clicking on the Alternate parts list. For these components it is important that all necessary parameters be specified, so that there will be no doubt which component the purchaser should acquire.

Once these properties are confirmed to be correct, the instance should be marked as Approved for BOM. This adds a green check mark to the component list. If all components have been approved, a green check mark is shown at the component class level as well.

Component search

When editing a component, you may click on the Search button to open the component search module. This displays relevant component properties for searching. Put a check mark beside the properties to use in your search (modifying texts as necessary) and click on the Search button.

Note: Access to the Octopart component database (through the Nexar Legacy API) is sponsored by the sales office for Macaos Enterprise users who are active customers. Macaos Enterprise EMS users and other users must acquire an API token from Octopart. Tokens for a limited number of searches per month are available at no cost.

By default, up to 5 matching parts are returned in the list. This Part limit may be changed, if desired, up to a maximum of 20 per search. If more than 20 matching parts are found, the Offset may be used to specify how many parts to skip before returning a list of matching components.

For each stocked component, the quantity of suppliers and maximum inventory are listed. This gives a good estimate of the component’s availability.

With search results you can do the following:

• Set a check mark in the Manuf part # column to use the search result's Manufacturer and Manuf part # properties. The selected property values are shown at the bottom left, above the Search button.
• Set a check mark in the Alt column to add the search result to the Alternate parts list
• Right click on a search result to open the Octopart web page for the component

Once the desired Manuf part # (and alternates, if any) have been selected, click on the Copy to component button to update the component's properties in the component editor.

Additional editor operations

Some operations may be performed on multiple components. To do this, select one or more components (pressing the Ctrl and Shift buttons as necessary) and then right-click on the list.

• Edit Mounting style
• Edit Height
• Edit Max solder temp
• Change component class to...

For these four operations, the chosen property/properties of all instances of all selected components will be modified, regardless of whether selected at the component or the instance level.

• Mark status approved
• Mark BOM status approved or Remove BOM status approval
• Mark Placement status approved or Remove BOM status approval
• Remove approval

For these four operations, the Approved for placement property is marked or unmarked for all selected instances and the Approved for BOM property is marked or unmarked for all selected components.

• Mark as Do Not Place
• Remove Do Not Place
• Include in PnP output
• Exclude from PnP output

For these four operations, the Do not place or Include in Pick and Place output property is marked or unmarked for all selected instances. Selections at the component level of the list are ignored.

• Mark as Equivalent or better
• Remove Equivalent or better
• Remove all alternate part #s

For this operation, the text Equivalent or better is added to the list of alternate manufacturer part numbers for all instances of all selected components, regardless of whether selected at the component or the instance level.

• Swap layer
• Delete component

For these two operations, the operation is performed on all selected component instances. Selections at the component level of the list are ignored.

Note: When selecting multiple components with the Shift key, all instances between the selected components in the list will also be selected, even if the instance level is collapsed. However, if the last item selected is a component, then its instances will not be selected (since the parent is the last item in the selection range).

Once your PnP and BOM data are ready, you can send a Request for Quotation (RFQ) for purchasing and assembly of your PCB to any participating Electronics Manufacturing Services (EMS) provider. This is a quick and easy way to get your PCB into production, since Macaos Enterprise makes the necessary information available to your partners in a reliable and orderly manner.

Note: This feature is only available for Macaos Enterprise users in markets with participating EMS providers.

Generating an RFQ for assembly does 3 things:

1. If one does not already exist, a partnership is created between your company and each selected EMS provider.

2. The product must be shared with each selected EMS provider. If not already shared, then the product is shared with Quote visibility for 10 days.

3. A message is sent to each EMS provider informing them of your RFQ. The message is also visible in the EMS provider's Macaos Enterprise, together with your product data.

Icons in the EMS provider list indicate:

• if you have already shared the product with the EMS provider

• if the EMS provider is already your partner, but the product hasn't been shared with them

• the country where the EMS provider is located

There are several bits of information that must be gathered before you can send an RFQ. Missing or inadequate information is flagged with a red X and an error message.

Once everything is ready, the message to the EMS providers is shown, as well as a list of actions (creating partnerships and shares, and sending RFQs) to perform. Click on the Submit RFQ button to perform these actions.

You may specify up to 3 different quantities and up to 3 different delivery dates for your quotations.

Normally, the EMS provider will purchase the boards and components for you. In the options section, you may choose to do some of your own purchasing.

Normally, EMS providers will respond by e-mail within two working days. If you choose to accept a quotation from one of the Macaos system EMS providers, you will need to contact them directly to place your order. You should also change the product share for that partner, giving them Manuf visibility and extending the lifetime of the share. See Product sharing for more information.

If a product is shared to an EMS provider with Quote visibility, then your partner will be able to view your PnP data and BOM list, but they will not be able to export that data from Macaos Enterprise.

Note: It is not possible to generate an RFQ for a product that a partner has shared with you.

BOM reports

Four different BOM reports may be viewed:

• Component list lists all components, grouped by component class
• Supplier list lists all components, grouped by supplier
• Placement list lists all component instances grouped by layer and mounting style
• Solder temperature report lists all components where the maximum solder temperature has been specified

Double-click on a component in the BOM report to edit the component.

Entering a search text causes all cells containing that text to be highlighted.

Note: Users with a Macaos Enterprise EMS license may export any of these reports to an Excel file.

Export of PnP data

Note: Access to this feature requires a Macaos Enterprise EMS license.

Pick and place data may be exported as a delimited text file. The column order, unit of measure, rotation direction, delimiter and layers may be specified to give the desired export format.

Price estimates

Note: Access to this feature requires a Macaos Enterprise EMS license.

When a manufacturer and part number have been assigned from a search result, an Octopart ID code is attached to the part number. This is indicated by a dollar sign together with the green Approved for BOM icon in the component lists. This ID code enables acquiring price estimates for the component.

You can right-click on a component class and choose Link to Octopart to automatically attach an Octopart ID code to components where the Octopart database has one (and only one) part with a manufacturer part number which exactly matches the component's part number.

Click on the Price button to open the Component pricing estimator module. This module lists all of the components that have an ID code and price offers (in various currencies) from available suppliers. In addition, all suppliers and all currencies are listed at the left.

Specify the Quantity boards to be produced, select a Calculation method and the desired Currency for price estimate. If desired, remove the check mark from any suppliers to exclude when calculating the total price. The total price is automatically updated when a parameter is changed.

For each component, the manufacturer part number, manufacturer, quantity required (for the specified board quantity), estimated price and component description are listed. Right-click on a component to open the Octopart web page for the component.

Click on the small + (plus) button to the left of a manufacturer part number to see details of the supplier offers (with sufficient stock) for that component. For each supplier, the SKU, supplier name, quantity in stock, price in desired currency, price in supplier’s currency and packaging (if known) are listed.

Suppliers with a yellow star are authorized distributors for the manufacturer. Suppliers with a gray star outline are non-authorized stocking distributors. Suppliers without a star are brokers. See https://octopart.com/authorized for a description of these supplier classifications.

The price estimator converts all prices to the desired currency (using Octopart’s exchange rate) when calculating the total price. In the Description column for each offer, the actual price in the original currency is shown. The total price estimate for all components (with prices) is shown at the bottom of the price estimator module.

Note: All price offers are provided by suppliers through Octopart. Macaos Software AS bears no responsibility for the accuracy, fitness or usability of price offers presented in this module.

Click on the Clear button to delete all components from both sides of the board.

This operation is useful if you find that import of PnP and/or BOM data has not turned out well, and you wish to start over.

Note: This operation can not be undone. However, you can exit the module without saving changes in order to revert to the previously saved state.

There are two styles of solder pallets:

• A wave solder pallet exposes the entire solder side of the PCB to the solder wave. For panels, there is an opening for each board in the panel. This would typically be used to support small, thin or irregularly shaped PCBs as they travel through the wave soldering machine.

• A selective wave solder pallet exposes only regions with plated through-hole (PTH) components to the solder wave, while protecting other regions from the solder wave. This would typically be used when soldering PTH components on a board which also has surface-mounted (SMT) components, gold fingers, ground planes, heat-sensitive or other areas needing protection on the solder side of the PCB.

Both styles of wave solder pallets have the same frame, with stiffener/solder-dam on all four edges of the top side, and rotary PCB fasteners. The bottom edge of the rail fingers is flush with the bottom side of the PCB. The leading and trailing edges, as well as all four corners, are chamfered.

In Macaos much of the pallet design is calculated automatically. You need only define the following:

• outer dimensions and material parameters

• placement of PCB fasteners

• solder wave openings (selective wave solder pallets only)

• component pockets (selective wave solder pallets only)

Your input is welcome

The pallet creator is a new module in Macaos Enterprise. Although we have done our best to develop a module that is both fully functional and easy to use, there are undoubtedly things we haven’t thought of. If you have suggestions or wishes for improving this module, we welcome your input. Please send your feedback to support@macaos.com.

1. Locate the product to depanelize. Select the product in the Macaos product browser and then click on the Depanel button to open the Depanelization module.

2. Locate the break-off tabs. Click on the Auto-tab button. This should automatically create a depanelization segment for each break-off tab in the panel. This operation looks for all gaps between slots in the panel that are less than specified Tab width. If necessary, you may need to adjust the tab width and try again. Note: Gaps that are smaller than 1.5 mm less than the specified tab width are ignored.

   If tabs are placed at the corners of a rectangular board, they may be removed by drilling rather than by milling. The main advantage to drilled corner tab removal is improved stability during tab removal, since there is no horizontal pressure on the boards as they are loosened from the panel. Drilling also removes a tiny (<0.2mm) bit of the corner, which improves handling by removing sharp corners from the boards. To specify that corner tabs should be drilled, set a check mark by Corners|Drilled.

   Note: For purposes of depanelization, the tab width is the width of the narrowest point on the tab.

3. Make corrections, if necessary. If tabs are placed too close to the corners of the boards, then the program may not be able to differentiate between actual tabs and other small gaps between the ends of slots.

   If you need to add a tab that was not automatically created, click on the Tab button (so that it is down). Click near the point where the tab begins, and move the mouse pointer near the point where the tab ends. The selection line will automatically snap to the nearest slot segment endpoint. Release the mouse button to create a depanelization segment.
   Note: If the panel slot is defined by its outline rather than its centerline, press and hold Ctrl before you click, so that the slot endpoint is located at the center of the arc which defines the end of the slot. To ignore slot endpoints, press Ctrl and Alt.

   If you need to delete a depanelization line or drill hole, click on the Delete tab button (so that it is down). Draw a selection rectangle around any portion of the object(s) you wish to delete.

4. Add drill holes (optional). Click on the Drill button (so that it is down). Click on any drill hole in the panel to add a drill hole to the milling file. Drill holes are used for registration pins. Registration holes are drilled separately from tab removal slots/holes (either in a separate file, or followed by an M00 compulsory stop).

5. Save the milling file. Click on the Save button to save the milling file. The default file format is G-Code, but the file may also be saved in Gerber format. After specifying a file name, the Milling program setup dialog box is used to specify the necessary parameters to generate an output file with the correct coordinates and operating commands for the target milling machine.

The Milling program setup dialog box specifies the transformation of coordinates from the workpiece coordinate system to the coordinate system of the milling machine. These include machine specific coordinate parameters, placement of the workpiece within the machine space, registrations holes (if applicable), z-axis parameters, and additional machine parameters.

Machine specific coordinate parameters

Machine table dimensions: The width and depth of the milling table. These values are used to display the milling space in the dialog box, and to center the workpiece within the milling space.

Machine space origin: The location of the coordinate origin in the machine space. Top is farthest from you when facing the machine.

Axes: Normally, the machine axes will be the same as the (unrotated) workpiece, i.e. X is X and Y is Y, or X is left-right and Y is front-back. If necessary, they may be swapped.

Machine X-axis and Machine Y-axis: Normally, the positive direction of a machine axis is the same as for the workpiece. If necessary, the direction may be inverted.

Placement of the workpiece within the machine space

Rotation of workpiece on milling table: The placement of the workpiece on the table may be rotated, if desired. This rotation is added to any rotation of the workpiece that may have been specified in the designer module.

Workpiece offset from machine origin: This is the offset from the machine space origin to the workpiece origin. This may be adjusted as necessary to place the workpiece at the desired location on the milling table.

The Center button sets the workpiece offset so that the workpiece is centered on the table. This is useful after having made changes to the machine specific coordinate parameters which may have moved the fixture outside of the milling space.

Registration holes

If the workpiece has registration holes (e.g. for a depanelization fixture), then the coordinates of the four registration holes are displayed. If desired, the Adjust X and Adjust Y buttons may be used to adjust the offset so that the coordinates of the registration holes are a multiple of 10.0 mm.

Offset from reg. holes: If (due to manufacturing tolerances) the location of the registration holes in the workpiece is incorrect, it may be desirable to add a small offset to the milling program.

Z-axis parameters

Z-axis: The Z-axis is normally positive in the upward direction. If necessary, this may be inverted.

Z-origin offset from table: This is the distance from the bottom edge of the workpiece to the Z-axis origin. If the origin is above the workpiece bottom, and +Z is upward, then this will be a positive value. If you make use of a tool homing device to set the Z-axis origin, then this offset should be equal to the thickness of the homing device when it rests on the same surface as the workpiece.

Height of workpiece: This is the distance from the bottom edge of the workpiece to the top of the workpiece. By default, this offset is automatically calculated from the workpiece dimensions. However, it may be adjusted, if necessary.

Clearance above workpiece: This should be slightly larger than the maximum height of any objects extending from the upper surface of the workpiece (e.g. components on the upper side of a panel being depanelized). The cutting tool will retract to 1mm above this height before moving from one cutting point to the next.

Additional machine parameters

Feed rate: The speed at which the cutting tool travels through the material being cut.

Spindle speed: The clockwise rotation speed of the cutting tool. Note: Counterclockwise spindle rotation is not supported.

Use coolant pump: If checked, the program will turn on/off the machine’s coolant pump.

Use milliseconds: If checked, the machine expects the spindle spin-up delay to be specified in milliseconds. Otherwise it is specified in seconds.

Combined or separate files

When generating milling data for multiple output processes (such as for both sides of a solder pallet), the data may be output as a combined file or as two separate files. Use the Include… check box to specify whether one or two output files will be generated.

Machine specific parameters

Upon closing the dialog box, machine specific parameters are saved for re-use the next time a milling program is generated. These include: machine table width, depth and origin, axis swapping and inversion, z-axis inversion, feed rate, spindle speed, coolant, and time in seconds or milliseconds. The option to include/exclude registration holes in the milling file is also saved.

A depanelization fixture holds the panel and boards securely in place during the milling process. In addition to the fixture walls (which are automatically calculated), support pedestals and suction cups need to be placed at appropriate locations for each board in the panel.

Select the placement of the dust removal nozzle (for connection to a vacuum cleaner) and the vacuum hose nozzle (for connection to a vacuum pump). Then specify the dust and vacuum nozzle diameters. Note: Changing these parameters will delete all support pedestals and suction cups.

• Suction cups: Each board, each cutout and the panel frame should have one or more suction cups to hold the material in place during routing. These must be located at points where there the suction cup will have complete contact with the lower side of the board. (No via holes, components or component pins.)
  For each of the suction cup diameters, an estimated suction force is shown. We recommend a suction of at least 10g per cm² of board area and at least 10g per cm spacing between suction cups (or 20g pr cm from cup to board edge).
• Hole support pedestals: These may be placed at any through-hole with a diameter of at least 2.0 mm. There must be at least 1.5 mm clearance around the hole for the shoulder of the pedestal.
• Slot support pedestals: These may be placed at any slot (though we recommend a slot width of at least 2.0 mm). There must be at least 1.5 mm clearance on each side of the slot for the shoulder of the pedestal. Note: If a slot support pedestal is placed on a curved slot or on a slot that is not long enough, then a hole support pedestal will be placed instead.

Note: Around the foot of each support or suction cup pedestal there should be an additional 2 mm clearance for components with a component height within 5 mm of the specified maximum component height.

Each board should have enough support pedestals to remain immovable, both vertically and horizontally, throughout the milling process.

If the panel is a regular array of a single product which has been created by the Macaos Panel Module, then the lower left board in the panel will be highlighted with a yellow rectangle when placing suction cups or hole support pedestals. A suction cup or pedestal placed within this board will automatically be duplicated to all of the other boards.

You should also specify the Component height of components mounted on the underside of the boards. Note: If you specify less than 10 mm as the maximum height of underside components, then a value of 10 mm will be used, in order to allow sufficient height for the suction cup pedestals.

The fixture will be manufactured in white photopolymer plastic. If desired, you may specify that the fixture be coated with Anti-static paint.

Use the Publish button to upload the fixture to the Macaos Repository. Initially, the fixture may only be viewed as a 2D schematic drawing. Once an order has been placed for the fixture, a Macaos engineer will generate a 3D model of the fixture, which may then be viewed in the product browser.

Macaos Integrated Test Jig

The Macaos Integrated Test Jig is a new design which integrates test circuitry into a modular test jig. It is developed for increased reliability and ease of design, compared to the Box Jig or the Legacy Jigs.

A PCB with test circuitry is located in the base of the jig, and the test pins are soldered into this PCB.

The user selects an active area size, and then specifies the locations and types of Guide Pins and Test Pins. From this information, the Upper Fixture, Protective Cover and Receptacle Plate (the three gray modules shown at the right) are generated and added to the jig. In addition, a Gerber file with the pin locations and profile of the Test Circuitry PCB is automatically generated.

The fixture specifications (in mm) are: