Fiducials

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.