Week 08: PCB Design and Milling

Assignment brief:

This week’s group assignment was to characterize the design rules for our in-house PCB production process. This involved documenting key machining parameters such as feeds, speeds, plunge rate, and depth of cut for both traces and board outlines, as well as identifying the tooling used for milling.
To understand the process better, we reviewed previous work from earlier students. This helped us get a clearer idea of the workflow and the steps required. We also found reference designs for clearance test patterns, which are commonly used to determine the minimum trace width and spacing that our milling machine can reliably produce.

Designing the PCB

I had to make some iterations to my design before exporting as I came across a few challenges in CopperCAM.

Iteration 1
Iteration 2
Iteration 3: Final

We export Gerber Files into CopperCAM from EasyEDA.
To export Gerber Files:

  • Step 1: Go to Fabrication → PCB Fabrication File (Gerber) in the EasyEDA toolbar.
  • Step 2: When prompted, click Yes, Check DRC to run the Design Rule Check.
  • Step 3: Review the preview window and click Generate Gerber to export the files.

    • PCB Milling Process