Gerber and NC Drill

Gerber Files

The Gerber file format has been a staple of the industry for decades. It consists of a human readable ASCII file that describes the shapes and line draws that make up a part of a PCB.

Each Gerber file correlates to a single layer of the board. The simplest example of this would be a Gerber file for each copper layer in a design. However CAD suites also use Gerber files to describe mask, silk, and various other layers that may be required for your design.

When generating Gerber files from your CAD suite it is important to be sure that all the layers necessary to manufacture your board as ordered are output. 
It is also important to note that Gerber files are less like an image file and more like an instruction set to a CNC machine, as such things sometimes get lost in translation during the export process.

We highly recommend reviewing your output Gerber files in a Gerber viewer to ensure they were output from your CAD suite as intended.

To help ensure we build your board exactly as intended please title your Gerber files so that the intended layer of each file is clear. You can also include a guide linking each file to its intended purpose, we refer to descriptions like these as Layer Stackups.

A layer stackup can be invaluable when preparing your order for production and helps prevent delays.

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Drill Files

An NC Excellon Drill file is a type of CNC instruction specifically for the drilling and routing of circuit boards.

Most CAD suites aggregate all of the drill hits required for your design into a single drill file for ease of use. However it is important to note that some do not. Be sure that you export and include all the required drilling data. If your CAD suite does split these up into multiple files they will commonly separate them into categories such as Plated, Non-Plated, and Slot files, though other combinations certainly do exist.

Much like Gerber files the best way to ensure all the pertinent data has been exported is to verify it in a Gerber viewer, many of which also support Excellon Drill files as well.