Tweet
robertferanec , I was checking with a European PCB manufacturer, and they offer an extra ECO stencil at a low cost, if the design has several variants it will help. Back to Altium, I was checking the paste mask, I noticed that AD does not apply variant on this mask. Kind of strange! I am not a software expert, but IMHO looks easy to implement this feature, what do you say?
-
-
JohnsonMiller It is not only a question on how easy it could be for Altium. Also consider the possible downsides to this.
As I mentioned previously, paste mask is fabrication type output, even though it is used for the assembly. It is coupled with the layout.
If you create 2 variants, with varying (not) fitted components, you would need two stencils. As WhoKnewKnows mentions, solder paste costs money. A stencil also costs money. And using the wrong stencil for a production cycle is the most expensive. When you do not produce that many products <= 10k/year, I do not think that saving on solder paste is worth it.
People may export wrongly, expecting the single paste mask export works for both variants.
And finally, if Altium make the paste mask expansion in the variant, then why also not the solder mask, oh and track and pads, footprints. Can you imagine how complex Altium would get?
For a recent session I did for production data, I created a document containing almost 70 bugs and ideas. Most of these are just for the basics - schematic, layout and data export. Sure there are many advanced things I would like to see, but I would much more like the basic tasks to work correct, smooth and consistent.Comment
Comment