Gerber Files

Those involved in the design and use of printed circuit boards (PCBs) know the pain of creating a design, having it produced, and then finding one or more design flaws that make a batch of printed circuit boards useless. Not only is it a waste of money and time, but it also creates costly production delays and lost revenue.

Whether you call it Gerber or IX274X that you use for designing your PCBs, they are often the first crucial step in your PCB manufacturing process. Demanding a lot of design ahead of production, most PCBs lean hard into their Gerber files.

Buyers may not understand PCB layout and manufacturing processes fully, and most are surprised at their complexity. Because PCBs are used in almost every modern electronic device – from that IoT array of kitchen appliances to the key fob for your car, they represent a diversity of designs.

When you are creating and ordering your printed circuit boards, you naturally want to make sure that there are no hiccups in the process. You want to make sure that the designs are perfect when they are submitted so you can get your PCBs as quickly as possible.

When you create a circuit design, you want to make sure that it is truly functional before you have it manufactured. Ideally, it will be perfect before you have a prototype made.

Few things are as frustrating as believing that you have designed a quality circuit only to find out it does not work once you have it manufactured. It could mean a lot of wasted time and energy, and it could mean that you spent money to have a prototype made.

Take a look at the manufacturing process used to create PCBs (printed circuit boards) and it is likely to cause a bit of a shock; few consumers understand the complexity of the PCB components hidden inside most of their electronic devices. Whether it is the simplest of calculators or the most advanced household appliance, a PCB (or two, or more) is at work inside.

PCB manufacturing requires a lot of design in advance of anything else. In fact, design and output of Gerber files are quite often the most common first step in the manufacturing process.

Gerber files have become the printed circuit board manufacturing industry’s standard design file output for PCB fabrication. When your PCB design is complete and you are ready for manufacturing your circuit boards, the first thing you need to do is to export your design files in Gerber format.