Global PCB Connections: Understanding the General Fabrication Process—A Designer’s Hidden Advantage
Elementary, Mr. Watson: Why Your PCB Looks Like a Studio Apartment
The Shaughnessy Report: A Plan for Floor Planning
Speaking the Same Language as Your Fabricator
March 12, 2025 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineEstimated reading time: 2 minutes
“What we’ve got here is a failure to communicate.” —Strother Martin as the captain in “Cool Hand Luke”
Strother Martin might have been talking about PCB designers and fabricators when he uttered the most famous line of his acting career. We do indeed have a failure to communicate; designers and fabricators often seem to be talking past each other, which can lead to jobs being put on hold.
We asked Jen Kolar, VP of engineering for Monsoon Solutions, and columnist Kelly Dack to share their thoughts on ways that we can break down the communication barrier between design and fabrication. As they point out, a design kickoff checklist and a solid review process can be invaluable tools in a designer’s toolbox.
Andy Shaughnessy: Welcome, Jen and Kelly. What are the most common communication mistakes, miscues, and missteps that you see between design and fabrication?
Jen Kolar: Oftentimes, we ask our project manager, “Can you please remind our designers to actually follow our process?” We have a standard process for how all outputs and packages should be created. However, many of our customers add their own tweaks. Speaking of language, when fab shops don't have CAM350 and they're using a lower-end tool, I have seen issues flagged as errors when they were not actually errors. It’s happened many times. I try to avoid having designers send both Gerbers and ODB++ because invariably, the fab vendor will have differences, and you'll spend a lot of time with the fab vendor trying to resolve this.
Kelly Dack: Jen and I have had similar experiences. She hit the nail on the head about sending ODB++ and Gerber in parallel. One North American supplier built it using the ODB++ data, and when the boards came in, the customer asked, “Why is this different from the PCBs we received from our offshore supplier?” Well, it turned out they had Gerber data different from the ODB++ data. Jen, where does it all start with the design tool? It's so easy for designers to start clicking away and have our layout tools guide us through the process using the standard design rule settings. New designers don't know what they don't know, and they may be relying on standard out-of-the-box settings from their layout tools.
To read this entire conversation, which appeared in the March 2025 issue of Design007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Testimonial
"We’re proud to call I-Connect007 a trusted partner. Their innovative approach and industry insight made our podcast collaboration a success by connecting us with the right audience and delivering real results."
Julia McCaffrey - NCAB GroupSuggested Items
The Shaughnessy Report: A Plan for Floor Planning
08/11/2025 | Andy Shaughnessy -- Column: The Shaughnessy ReportMost of the time, we cover topics that designers say are giving them trouble. But designers don’t usually cite floor planning as one of their bigger challenges. No, it’s the fabricators who say that floor planning is an ongoing problem for their designer brethren, usually after having to put yet another job on hold.
Elementary Mr. Watson: Closing the Gap Between Design and Manufacturing
07/23/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonModern PCB designers are not merely engineers or technicians. I believe that PCB design, at its core, is an art form, and modern PCB designers should be considered artists. Beyond the technical calculations and engineering rules lies a creative process that involves vision, balance, and a passion for what we do. Like any artist who works with brush and canvas or chisel and stone, a PCB designer shapes invisible pathways that bring ideas to life. Each trace, layer, and component placement reflects thoughtful decisions that blend form, fit, and function.
The Pulse: Design Constraints for the Next Generation
07/17/2025 | Martyn Gaudion -- Column: The PulseIn Europe, where engineering careers were once seen as unpopular and lacking street credibility, we have been witnessing a turnaround in the past few years. The industry is now welcoming a new cohort of designers and engineers as people are showing a newfound interest in the profession.
Meet the Author Podcast: Martyn Gaudion Unpacks the Secrets of High-Speed PCB Design
07/16/2025 | I-Connect007In this special Meet the Author episode of the On the Line with… podcast, Nolan Johnson sits down with Martyn Gaudion, signal integrity expert, managing director of Polar Instruments, and three-time author in I-Connect007’s popular The Printed Circuit Designer’s Guide to... series.
Elementary, Mr. Watson: Rein in Your Design Constraints
07/10/2025 | John Watson -- Column: Elementary, Mr. WatsonI remember the long hours spent at the light table, carefully laying down black tape to shape each trace, cutting and aligning pads with surgical precision on sheets of Mylar. I often went home with nicks on my fingers from the X-Acto knives and bits of tape all over me. It was as much an art form as it was an engineering task—tactile and methodical, requiring the patience of a sculptor. A lot has changed in PCB design over the years.