ABL Circuits How does the PCB design process work

The customer would contact us with drawings or an idea – we can take that idea and turn it into a circuit diagram and from the circuit diagram we create a CAD layout on the computer which we then produce Gerber files for to manufacture a circuit board. So, the customer will either give us a circuit diagram such as these and a parts list and all the components, their values and the manufacturers part number so we can look up the specifications of each part and if they are not already in the library of the CAD system we can create them and put them in the library. Sometimes we do, it is probably about 50-50, often the customer will supply everything, full parts list, all the drawings available from themselves and then we will take that and turn that into a CAD layout. Other times people will provide us with an idea, a few sketches, drawings and we will then get our electronics guy to design the circuit diagram and come up with our parts list and then we will then take that into account for the CAD layout; So in this particular one there are 7 pages of drawings and there are a dozen pages of components and we will tie them all together. You have got the drawing that the customer supplied showing the physical layout for the board, the dimensions, showing where a particular component needs to go on the board so that’s our starting point. With the board outlined, get all the components made and in the library,position all the components that have to be in a set position and then we will do the circuitry diagram after that.

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