Altium geber output question

[bmarvo]

Been watching daves vids since probably episode 5 or so. Its about time I get on these forums right?

Anyway, Ive been using eagle for years now but I had to switch to Altium for a project at school. The transition wasn't that bad but I'm used
to having eagle generate my gerbers by running the rs-274x job and not ask any questions. When I bring up the gerber output dialog in Altium
it asked me to specify a format (2:3, 2:4, 2:5). The descriptions for them say to choose 2:3 if all objects are on a 1 mil grid and choose 2:4 or 2:5
for higher precision BUT some board houses won't be able to handle the higher ones. All of my objects origins are on a 1 mil grid,
but their pads are not. Like (722.772mil, 334.362mil) for example.

Relevant information: I plan on going with pcbcart, who doesn't seem to list any such restriction on their site

So what I'm asking is, is it okay to choose higher than 2:3? Is it normal for a decent board house to support higher than 2:3? If i choose wrong, can the fabricator
fix the problem without me needing to generate new gerbers? Am I just paranoid?

Same goes for the NC drill output

Thanks!

[joelby]

I've always just used 2:4 with PCBCart, never even thought about the precision, and haven't had any problems whatsoever.

[Psi]

yeah, i use 2:4 as well.

it asked me to specify a format (2:3, 2:4, 2:5). The descriptions for them say to choose 2:3 if all objects are on a 1 mil grid and choose 2:4 or 2:5
for higher precision BUT some board houses won't be able to handle the higher ones. All of my objects origins are on a 1 mil grid,
but their pads are not. Like (722.772mil, 334.362mil) for example.

They don't mean that a board house can't use your gerbers if you pick 2:4 / 2:5, they mean the board house might not have the accuracy to produce a board down to that level (if you happen to need it).

ie, They might feed 2:4 level positioning detail to one of their machines, but the machine may only be rated to 2:3. It will accept 2:4 but only produce 2:3 accuracy.  Exactly the same as telling a machine to move 1.0000mm when it's only rated to 1.00mm accuracy

[gxti]

Another fun thing that it took me a dozen boards to figure out where it was hiding: you can create an "Output Job File" with all the steps for your production outputs. The user interface is pretty wacky, but just make sure there's a "Folder Structure" in the "Output Containers" to the right, then add the outputs you want on the left, and click the 'Enabled' button for each one while the Folder Structure is selected. Gerber Files, NC Drill files under "Fabrication Outptuts" are a good start. I also like to add the BOM in XLS format, and a PDF container with DRC and ERC report, assembly drawing, and schematic prints. The best part is that it saves the settings associated with each output, and you can copy the job file from one project to the next with minor tweaks so you keep your preferred settings.