Author Topic: PCB Panelization - Nested Designs?  (Read 1270 times)

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Offline klr5205Topic starter

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PCB Panelization - Nested Designs?
« on: May 01, 2020, 02:19:15 pm »
I have two different ring-shaped pcbs of different diameters.  One can easily fit inside the other.  Is there a simple way to nest one inside the other for manufacture, with the center having just a few mouse bites holding it in place?  It probably goes without saying that I'm not incredibly experienced with Altium but at least initially when I fired up the panelization tool and nested the boards like I wanted, the larger board's inside cutout feature overrode the smaller pcb leaving pads just floating in space. 

In typing this it occurs to me that rather than creating an embedded panel drawing with two different files it would be simpler to create one file with both board designs on it routed the way I want, but I've come this far so I might as well see if the hivemind has an even better idea!   :P
 

Offline klr5205Topic starter

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Re: PCB Panelization - Nested Designs?
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2020, 06:11:49 pm »
Figured it out, but just to close the loop, here's what I did:

To start off, I think most of my confusion here was that I forgot to define a route tool layer in the first place.  Having done that, the rest becomes pretty obvious.

For the purposes of this nested design panel, I created a copy of the larger PCB that didn't have the cutout region.  I then placed the area to be cutout on my route path layer.   Simple as that.  Now when I lay the designs on top of each other using the panelize tool, everything renders correctly.  Now just to add some tabs/mouse bites...
 
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