Puzzle is to combine multiple separate boards (boards that are not connected to each other) into one board and submit them together. In this way, a variety of boards can be produced at one time, the speed is very fast, and the general price will be cheaper than a single PCB proofing (batch).
Panels are generally connected using V-Cut or stamp holes. V-cutting is to use a V-cutting machine to make a knife on the upper and lower sides of the board, so that it can be easily removed by hand. Stamp holes use pads or vias similar to stamp holes for connection between boards.
The puzzle operation is very simple, first draw the board, then create another PCB file as the board for the board, copy all the original board, and then paste it on the file used for the board (shortcut key EA), For example, draw a small board as shown below:
Now we need to make this small board to make a puzzle, select all copy, and then paste EA special in the puzzle file, select "Duplicate designator" and click "Paste Array" when pasting, you can also click "Paste", "Paste" Array” is to paste multiple pieces at one time. After selecting “Paste Array”, enter the matrix paste option:
X-Spacing indicates the horizontal spacing of the pasted small plates, if it is equal to the width of the small plates, it means that the pasted small plates are arranged seamlessly, generally Use V-cut to set it like this. If it is larger than the width of the small plate, there is a gap in the middle of the pasted small plate, and the stamp hole can be placed. It cannot be smaller than the width of the small board, otherwise the two boards will overlap, and all fools know that this is not acceptable.
Then I repeated the EA-Paste Array operation and placed the copied boards reasonably to get a large 5x3 board:
and added a 3mm craft edge on the left and right sides, which was added for the convenience of SMT patch. . In this way, a jigsaw board is completed. Making such a large board is called 1SET, and there are 5x3=15 small boards in a large board, which is called 15pcs. When V-cutting, you need to have a line that identifies the V-cut trajectory. You can also draw a V-cut line on a Machanical Layer and mark this layer as the V-CUT layer. You can get it from Baidu in detail. You can also draw directly on the KeepOut Layer, and then communicate with the PCB manufacturer to indicate that this is a jigsaw puzzle, and V-cut is used for cutting in the middle.
It is a little more troublesome to use stamp holes to make plates than V-cuts. When special pasting, you can choose Paste, and then arrange multiple plates and add stamp holes between the plates to connect them. For example, there is a drawn board to be assembled as follows:
the following is the assembling operation, and an empty PCB file is created as the previous operation for assembling, and then a special paste is performed, and a stamp hole is added between the board and the board. , the results are as follows:
The design of the stamp hole can also be found on the Internet. I simply designed the stamp hole here:
To be honest, the design method of this stamp hole was invented by myself. I don’t know if there is anything wrong, or it is very awkward place. No matter how the board is proofed, it is easy to use and easy to break.
In addition, it is explained that when copying the original board to be assembled, there will be many green errors, because after copying, the network label and so on are wrong, and then the rules of the new PCB file are the default rules. It is best to change the rules to the rules of the board to be assembled, so that many errors (that is, the green areas) can be removed, but not all of them. At this time, you don't need to directly cast the board, but you can do "Reset" for good looks. Error Markers", the shortcut key is TM, which removes all green.