Hi ya'll!

Gotta' question, I've been getting boards panelized here that have been
single boards previously. My part is to specify what the maximum panel size
should be, and ask that .5" rails be put on two parallel sides of the panel.
The buyer then communicates this to our fab vendors and has them do the
panelization. I ask that buyer tell the fab vendor to email me the panelized
gerbers so I can get a stencil made for the panel. Sounds simple enough huh?

But I found that a few of our vendors have told the buyer that this is not
something they normally do...or the latest thing that I was told was that
they do the panelization manually? I don't understand...

I'm not educated enough about this, but I thought that a single image gerber
is just stepped-and-repeated to give you the panel which is used to photoplot
the artwork that the fab vendor has to have to build the fab. The file has to
exist or the fab vendor wouldn't be able to make fab, right? So why am I
getting such resistance when I ask for the panelized gerbers?

What am I missing?

I can still get a stencil made without the panelized gerbers, but I have to
wait until the paneled fab actually gets here so I can send it to my stencil
vendor with the single image gerber...my stencil vendor will take care of the
step-and-repeat, but it's kind of a hassle. It would be so simple to do
things by email...

-Steve Gregory-

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