Remember me briefly showing JLCONE’s DFM (Design for Manufacturing) feature some time back? I loved it. This is a feature (like the auto-routers) which I suddenly realised, I could not live without. And because of that, I realised, the (aging) EaglePCB software is quite limited. Apart from the auto-router, it can only help me with the DRC (Design Rule Check) to check for trace overlapping, proximity errors plus other yet-to-be discovered features which I did not RTFM to tell you more. In other words, after checking to make sure the auto-router (and my messing about) has done its job connecting everything and also, the DRC check to make sure there are no overlapping boo-boos, I upload my File to JLCPCB.
This is where I use their DFM Check to ensure there are no further serious mistakes on the design. For this case, my design had two square holes which has no reason to be there, cut into the PCB. Initially, when I prototyped it on a 0.8mm FR4, JLCPCB did warn me about it, thinking it was an error but I replied that it was intentional. EaglePCB could not warn me when the trace went through one of the two holes. The DFM caught it. There are four colours in the DFM to indicate the ‘seriousness’ of the error, ranging from ‘normal’ grey to ‘hey, take a look’ green to ‘please take a look’ orange to ‘OMG, this is serious’ red.
So, I am grateful for this feature. This was the same design when I uploaded to JLCPCB and they would inform me of the two weird holes, confirming if it was an actual design feature before continuing. I guess, they could be running the same software to detect this. Imagine thousands of designs coming in everyday and so, they need some tool to quickly check on the designs. In the past, the Manufacturer would just do the Boards and if there is any design issues, it is not their problem unless it affects their tools more or less, which I presume, they would cancel the run.
