Yes, it is a good idea to view your own files, but nothing guarantees an error free board.  We had a board made by the same board house at least ten times.  There is one custom aperture used one time on one connector on this board.  They got it right everytime except the last time.  Unfortunately, they made 6000 boards.  The pad was wrong on the inner layers and tied power and ground together.  I do all of the steps you have outlined below.  When I viewed the Gerbers, it was right.  How do you prevent this?
Jean

----------
From:   Neil Diamond
Sent:   Thursday, March 05, 1998 1:30 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Re: [TN] FAB/DES: Electronic data interchange (EDI)

Gregg,
 I would reccomend using a third party gerber tool to review the data being
released.
ACT has a tool that will allow you to review and check your data.  You may
find them at [http://www.ecam.com].

 I am a designer that uses a gerber tool to review the data before it is
released.
I do the following:
 1. read the data in the format I will be releasing including the drill file.
 2. do a check on apertures being used, minimum spacing and annular ring
parameters.
 3. generate check plot for each layer on a laser printer for visual check.
This may seem like a lot of extra steps. But if you catch a problem now,
the cost is minimum compared to having start the job again. Mistakes
happen...I like to catch my own errors before they become major problems.

  A seasoned CAM operator would have questioned this.  However, if this
happened on a quick turn. The data checking is not always as complete. In a
previous life I managed both a CAM and a CAD department. We would get
requests to just quickly layup the tooling and shoot it out. The boards
were fabricated to match the supplied data and nothing more. Doing a
complete check for possible fabrication issues takes good tools and time.
And we know time is money, not to mention the costs of maintaining the cam
station. If this happened on a production run, you need to sit down with
your account rep and hash this out.

Neil Diamond

At 12:33 PM 3/5/98 -0500, Gregg Klawson wrote:
<clip>
>
>We would like to continue with an all electronic process but need some
>fool-proof checks that will detect if we send some incorrect file(s)/data
>or our board house does something wrong.  I'm sure companies are doing this
>sucessfully all the time (and all electronic).  How are people making this
>process work well for them?
>---
>Gregg Klawson
>GTE Government Systems Corp, Taunton, Massachusetts, USA
>[log in to unmask], telephone +1.508.880.1822
>

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