Panelized PCBs - DIY or let the fab do it

[level6]

I going to do my first panels of a PCB and was wondering which is best - DIY the panels in KiCad or just have the fab house, JLCPCB, do it for me?

[jmelson]

Well, if the fab does it, you don't know the step-over between individual boards, or the position of any panel fiducials.  If you do the panelization, you control and know all these items.
Jon

[selcuk]

If it is a simple prototype board for DIY purposes or has components with very obvious layouts, pads or footprints, you may let the manufacturer do it. Other than that if you have components like below, you can do it yourself to be sure:

-Connectors going beyond board edges and need extra PCB space under them.
-Leaded components requiring reflow soldering and close to the board edges.
-SMD pads with irregular shapes or paste layers.
-Sensitive parts that can be broken during depanelisation. You can place mouse bites away from them.

If you want to do it with KiCAD, there is a plugin. Check this topic:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/kicad/how-to-panelize-with-kicad/

[aeg]

The board house can usually do a better job than me or the CM, but I do the panelizing myself anyway. That way, I have panel gerbers I can take anywhere. If the board house is backlogged / flooded / closed for spring festival, I can use the same stencil with boards from another factory.

[MarkF]

I have always done my own.
I don't know what it is like in KiCad.

For Diptrace, there is a panelizing wizard built-in.
You select v-lines or tabs.  Answer a few questions.  And you're done.
There is also a view of the final panel layers for verification.

Diptrace zip's up all the gerbers and off you go.

I've used JLCPCB and Elecrow to make the panels without any problems.
Even very small 1mm thick PCBs for my model railroad constant lighting.
You just need to stay under there 10cm x 10cm overall panel size to avoid an extra cost.
(Diptrace displays the over all panel size.  So you can adjust the number of rows and columns.)

[Styno]

I usually let the board house do it because I'm lazy and find it difficult in Eagle (earlier) and KiCad (now) to make panels (the duplicate design part). And with my pick and place machine it's pretty easy to setup the rotation and position of the boards in the panel.

But that said, there are a few things that are in favor of doing your own panel design:
- Able to add p&p feed direction arrows on the rails (so you don't accidentally load a board 180 degrees rotated)
- Control over the board (panel) fiducial position. Some manufacturers place them symmetrical which makes loading the board error prone, see above.
- Control over fixture hole size/positions in the rails, e.g. for manually soldering THT stuff on unstable boards.
- Add other assembly info on the rails, e.g. fixture names for reflow or stencil versions.
- Route-out test signals to do multi-board assembly testing while still in the panel
- Better control over the placement of the mousebites (clear edges, away from important features etc.)
- Easier control over the rotation of a design in the panel.

[MR]

I have always done my own.
I don't know what it is like in KiCad.

For Diptrace, there is a panelizing wizard built-in.
You select v-lines or tabs.  Answer a few questions.  And you're done.
There is also a view of the final panel layers for verification.

Diptrace zip's up all the gerbers and off you go.

I've used JLCPCB and Elecrow to make the panels without any problems.
Even very small 1mm thick PCBs for my model railroad constant lighting.
You just need to stay under there 10cm x 10cm overall panel size to avoid an extra cost.
(Diptrace displays the over all panel size.  So you can adjust the number of rows and columns.)

There's a tool called kikit it's pretty nice, I'm sure sooner or later it can be used with Altium too.

[level6]

Thank you everyone for the replies.

I discovered KiKit and I'm now using it to make my own panels. As stated above, there are some good advantages to creating your own, one of them is placing stenciling fiducials on the rails.

[zapta]

I wish Kicad would have a straight forward panelization utility out of the box.

[Accu-Sembly]

Let your assembly house do it, or at least get input from the assembly process and depanelizing process.

I've seen many engineers make bad panel mistakes that resulted in depanelizing nightmares.  Components too close to stress lines, no clearance around rat bites for removal, no routing around overhanging components, etc.  Can your panel be reflowed in a reflow oven without sagging?  Is it too large for proper support in screen printing/pick and place?  Does it have properly sized rails so it can be inspected in AOI while the edges are clamped?  Are the PCBs oriented in a way that optimizes stencil creation and solder paste release? Every board/panel has an ideal configuration that avoids assembly issues and reduces assembly cost. 

For our customers, we review and recommend panel layouts that best work with the manufacturing and assembly process. (of course, we also provide the PCB, stencil, and assembly so you should never have to even see the panel)