PADS Layout Gerber File Incompatibility

Design Tools and Resources DKRed and PCB Builder
1

We had a problem with submission of our Gerbers. When attempting to submit again, we found this page: https://www.digikey.com/en/resources/design-tools/pcb-faqs

Which states “We do not currently accept Gerbers from PADS at this time.”

Can we get more details? Gerber output can be configured and is supposed to be mostly layout-tool independent, so this comment didn’t make sense to us.

We’d like to see if we can adjust our output to make it compatible with the requirements for DK RED fabrication

Thanks

2

Greetings,

I would interpret that as the writer misapprehending the term “Gerber” as an appropriate reference to tool-native file formats.

RS-274-X is a common interchange for art layers currently, Excellon/XNC/IPC-NC-349 common for drill files. What your tool may call such formats in its config settings may vary, but most any tool capable of generating outputs in these standard interchange formats should work. The file extensions (.gbo, .gto, etc.) may be used to identify the file’s intended purpose as copper, silk, etc, but are otherwise immaterial.

3

We use RS-274X as our gerber format by default, so I’m interpreting your response as we should ignore that comment.

Thanks

4

Here are instructions on how to get PADS to work with PCB Builder