Pick and place data

When a pick and place (PnP) data file is assigned to a Component layer, the Import Module will attempt to interpret the data. If the file format is not immediately recognized, then it may be specified in the Pick and Place Data Import dialog box, which displays the original file contents, parsed file contents and the interpreted XYR data.

The following may be specified:

  • Number of header lines

  • First character of comment lines

  • Separated or fixed-width columns

  • Separator and quote characters (for separated files)

  • Column widths (for fixed-width files)

  • Unit of measure for X and Y coordinates

  • Angle rotation direction (counter-clockwise or clockwise)

  • Column mapping. (Up to 3 columns may be combined as the component description.)

PnP Import dialog

Once the data has been parsed, the components are added to the Component Top and/or Component Bottom layers.

Note: A component layer may not have duplicate component designators. When importing specifications for a component which already exists, the component properties are updated with the imported data.

If the PnP data does not have the same coordinate origin as the Gerber data, then the component symbols will be offset from their correct position on the board. This may be corrected by aligning the component data with the Gerber data.