We’ve always had a “status” column under Running orders to tell you how far your order has got in the manufacturing process, but our customers have told us that the names of the steps and what they mean has not been clear enough. We want to make our services as smooth and as transparent as possible for our design and purchasing customers, so we have introduced a new timeline. Now in one place it tells you where your order is, what we are doing with it, whether you can make any changes, and when it will be shipped. It links to full details of the order and to its associated paperwork. All the information and links you need to check that your order is proceeding smoothly and will be delivered on schedule can be seen at a glance.

How does it work?

Select any running order and click on the green entry in the “Status” column. This opens a new page. Three columns at the top display:

Below them is a thumbnail of the top and bottom of the finished PCB, and 5 boxes showing the timeline through the factory. Each box contains 1 or 2 green dots. Click on the dot to see the associated message.

The boxes and dots correspond to the process steps in the Status column.

Analysis

The Analysis box covers data preparation. There are 5 status steps:

Production.

The status stages are

Shipping

Invoice

Invoiced. There is only 1 status step and 1 message. Invoices are normally emailed to the designated contact 2 – 3 days after the boards are dispatched.

Payment

Unpaid invoices are listed under the Financial tab, rather than recorded as a status step. When the invoice has been paid we complete the timeline.

Since it was launched in 2012, PCB Visualizer has processed around 100,000 PCB designs. Most of these have either validated the customer’s data-set or raised clear issues (missing files, track widths or isolations out of specification, etc.). But every day PCB Visualizer presents results on a few jobs (perhaps 1 – 2% of the total) which are not clear to our customers, so they contact us by chat, phone or email for clarification. Many of these questions are the same, so it is worthwhile now to explain how PCB Visualizer works and what it is designed to do.

PCB Visualizer is an automatic Gerber checker, running a preliminary analysis on customers’ data either prior to quotation or prior to order. The purpose of the check is to ensure that all the data files are present and there are no major data issues which will cause an exception and hence delay production once an order is placed.

This is not the only check that we will carry out on your order. Our engineers will re-check your data 100% while preparing the production data used to manufacture your PCB (more on this process). This means that in many cases where PCB Visualizer raises an issue, you can place your order confident that our engineers will resolve the issue without any problem.

ACTION tips.

PCB Visualizer is a Gerber analysis tool. That means it works on lists of shape definitions and X,Y co-ordinates for layer and drill information. PCB Visualizer:

What are the most common questions our customers ask us?

1. Why is my job taking so long to process?

There are several possible reasons:

If it’s not a busy time of day (late afternoon usually) and your job has normal size files but is still taking more than an hour to process, contact us by chat.

2. What do the flags mean?

There are no issues with your job. You can proceed to order.

PCB Visualizer could not import all the data or could not work out the correct build. Check the associated message to get more information on the issue.

PCB Visualizer has found a non-critical issue. You can place your order as our engineers will probably be able to resolve the issue at the tool-preparation stage. But you might want to review the data before you proceed.

PCB Visualizer has found a critical issue. You need to correct it now to avoid an exception later.

3. What do the messages mean?

There’s a full list of messages in the PCB Visualizer Help files (click [?] at the top right of the PCB Visualizer screen). The most common issues we find are:

Import failed.

Data not in Extended Gerber (RS-274X), or EAGLE .brd Version 6.

ACTION needed:

No outline detected. Outline might be incorrect. Registration may be incorrect.

To find the outline, PCB Visualizer needs to be able to register the layers and then find a continuous rectangular box enclosing the PCB data. Typical reasons for the message may be:

No drill layers found.

This may be because you have not included a drill file in your data-set or because you have supplied a Gerber drill map instead of a drill file (see PCB Design Guidelines).

Board buildup could not be determined. Board buildup may not be correct.

PCB Visualizer determines the buildup on the basis of the layer names and the content of the layers. If possible use our recommended layer naming conventions (see PCB Design Guidelines). Otherwise if PCB Visualizer has not assigned the layers correctly, use the Layer editor to correct the buildup. PCB Visualizer will learn the new assignment for future reference.

4. PCB Visualizer has put a red flag against my job: what should I do next?

Red flags show a serious discrepancy between order and the data. The first column shows the “required value” for the class selected for the order. The “measured value” in red shows what PCB Visualizer has actually found in the data. Some of the most common issues are:

Plating index lower than 0.4.

The plating index is a measure of the evenness of the copper thickness across the PCB. If the value is less than 0.4 there is a risk that some areas may be over-plated (copper too thick) and some under-plated (copper too thin). Click on the line to see the plating index image.

Minimum track-width and isolation distance.

PCB Visualizer flags any values less than the minimum specified for the chosen pattern class (see PCB Design Guidelines). Use PCB Checker to pinpoint the errors. You have 3 options depending on the number and type of the errors:

Minimum annular ring.

PCB Visualizer flags any values less than the minimum specified for the chosen pattern class (PCB Design Guidelines). Use PCB Checker to pinpoint the errors.

Component holes.

Note that we allow some relaxation of the annular ring rules for obround holes (PCB Design Guidelines). PCB Visualizer always shows the minimum ring value. If the hole and pad are within the relaxed rules, proceed with the order.

Otherwise you have 4 options depending on the number and type of the errors:

Via holes.

In many cases, annular ring issues on via holes can be resolved by our engineers. They either reduce the finished hole size or increase the pad sizes (especially on inner layers). They will raise an exception if the reduced hole size necessitates a more expensive class.

Note.

We assume that any hole of 0.45 mm finished diameter is a via hole which we can reduce. If you have component holes of 0.45 mm finished diameter or less, use the box in the Price Calculator marked “Holes <= may be reduced” to indicate the largest hole which can be treated as a via hole.

5. Why doesn’t PCB Visualizer display the slots and internal cut-outs in my job?

PCB Visualizer is a Gerber/drill analyser. Gerber data defines tracks, pads and planes. Drill data defines round holes. Slots and internal cut-outs are defined by draws, in different ways, sometimes on a mechanical layer and sometimes on a copper or legend layer. There is no reliable algorithm to recognize them automatically. However our engineers will recognize them during front-end data preparation. For the clearest way to define slots and cut-outs see PCB Design Guidelines.

If the slots and cut-outs are correctly drawn, place your order and our engineers will enter them into the production data. If you want to check them, use the “Pre-production check” function

6. PCB Visualizer hasn’t assigned the layers right: what should I do now?

Buildup is wrong

This can usually be avoided by clear layer naming conventions.

Layers mis-assigned

An unusual layout without a clear name may be mis-described.

PCB Visualizer has not recognised my profile/scoring layers.

PCB Visualizer can check and measure but it cannot interpret, especially if the mechanical data is stored in a document layer. Place your order: our engineers will normally sort this out.

PCB Visualizer has not recognised my blind/buried via layers.

There is no standard way to define these so PCB Visualizer cannot detect them. Define them using the Buildup Wizard and proceed with your order.

7. PCB Visualizer can’t read multi-job files.

I want Eurocircuits to build me a customer panel so I have put the 2 data-sets into 1 .zip file; but PCB Visualizer can’t show them properly. PCB Visualizer has been developed to work on single circuits. To check the data load each separately. Otherwise ignore PCB Visualizer, place your order and our engineers will panelise the files to your drawing.