Transform your business with Gerber X2

Ucamco is delighted to announce that its groundbreaking latest generation Gerber X2 CAD-to-CAM data transfer format is now being used for production boards at leading PCB manufacturers.

Ucamco launched Gerber X2 earlier this year with a single goal in mind: to provide a robust, standardized method for automatically transferring layout data and valuable PCB design information from CAD to CAM. Extended Gerber has always done a great job of handling the first part; the image data. Indeed, it's the best there is. But now with Gerber X2, the PCB industry's de facto standard image format is even better. That's because Gerber X2 offers a new format for the additional design data that is clear, unequivocal and automatically machine-readable, and that fully supports the existing Gerber image data format. Which means that Gerber X2 has all it takes to revolutionize the PCB industry's design, engineering and CAD-to-CAM processes. And yet it is also rooted in current systems and methods, so it is easy to implement, it is non-disruptive, and it is fully compatible with current software. Ucamco's Managing Director Karel Tavernier emphasises: "X2 maintains the trademark simplicity for which Gerber has always been known and used, requiring very little change to working practices, and certainly none that would require approval, testing and all the rest".

One of the new format’s most powerful features is its board stack-up information capability. With X2, the precise function of each layer file, and its location within the  stack-up, is clear and unequivocal, so stack-up data is generated automatically together with the image files. Drill and rout files, too, are fully automatically loaded and qualified, right from the start, thanks to the X2 format's wide-ranging functionality.

Equally powerful is X2's use of attributes to tag key parameters, such as files and features, with very specific CAD information that clearly defines their form and function. Thus pads can be automatically identified as BGA pads, or via pads, or as being defined by the soldermask as opposed to being defined by the copper. All of which is invaluable in optimising and streamlining the subsequent front-end and manufacturing  processes. Already familiar to CAM professionals, attributes sit naturally with the current capabilities of CAD and CAM systems, so are easy to incorporate into CAD and CAM software. Indeed, X2 is gaining a great deal of traction across the industry for the ease with which it can be adopted by software developers and users alike.

Now being supported by Graphicode's GC Prevue v22.3, Altium Designer, DipTrace, Kicad and Ucamco, and soon to be supported by LPKF, Gerber X2 delivers accessibility, simplicity, performance, and tried and tested formats that work for everybody. It's a great combination that gives designers a clear and simple method for ensuring that their manufacturing partners have the data necessary for efficient, reliable manufacture. All in a single, powerful, easy-to-use format.

Gerber X2 is a win for designers, it's a win for manufacturers and it's a win for their clients. Which is why the world's leading PCB designers and manufacturers are jumping at the chance to use it. Find out why: together with the GerberX2 format description and background articles, our sample GerberX2 archives are freely available at www.ucamco.com/downloads. Try them for compatibility, simplicity and value in use, and see just how much Gerber X2 could do for your throughput, your efficiencies, and your bottom line.