Drill Table

Modified by Jason Howie on Feb 12, 2015
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Drill Table (Object)

Parent page: PCB Dialogs

The Drill Table Dialog.

Summary

The Drill Table dialog is used to configure a Drill Table object. A standard element required for manufacture of a Printed Circuit Board is a drill drawing table, also known as a drill table or a drill drawing legend. The drill table lists the size and number of holes for each drill used on the board. The drill table updates in real time - as hole-containing objects such as pads and vias are placed or removed from the PCB design, the table updates.

Access

The dialog can be accessed during placement:

  • By pressing the Tab key.

After placement, the dialog can be accessed in the following ways:

  • Double-click on the drill table object.
  • Place the cursor over the object, right-click and choose Properties from the context menu.

Options/Controls

Grid Area

The drill table displays detailed information for each symbol type. It can be customized, including:

  • Changing the column order - Click and drag on a column header to change the order of columns.
  • Change a column header - Select the column then click the Change Header button, or right-click in the column and select Change Column Header from the menu.
  • Hide a column - Select the column then click the Remove Column button, or right-click and select Remove Column from the menu.
  • Show a column - Click the Add Column button then select the required column, or right-click and select the relevant Add Column menu entry.
  • Add a Custom column - Click the Add Column button then select Custom column, or right-click and select the Add Column » Custom Column menu entry. Both the header and the values are user-defined in a Custom column.

To sort the drill table, click once on a column heading to sort by that column. A small triangle will appear, indicating the current sort direction - click a second time to reverse the sort direction. Multi-level sorting is also supported, hold the Shift key as you click to sub-sort by a second (or third) column. 

Layer Pairs to Preview

The drill table supports multi-layer boards that use layer-pair drilling. To support the designer in using the drill table during the design process the table includes the Layer pairs to preview option, set this to restrict the table to only show the drill holes for just the selected layer-pair. 

The Layer pairs to preview option is not used to control which layer-pair drilling is included in the drill table during output generation, that is defined by the Drill Layers setting in the Layer Properties dialog in the output setup. That means that a single table can be placed on the design, the table will only include the appropriate layer-pair data during output generation of a drill drawing of that layer-pair.

Alignment

The table can be built from the bottom-up, Alignment = Bottom, or from the top-down, Alignment = Top. Use this setting to allow for table size changes without impacting on surrounding objects in the workspace.

Display Options

  • Location X - Current X location of the drill table reference point. The reference point is the bottom left corner if Alignment = Bottom, or top left corner if Alignment = Top.
  • Location Y - Current Y location of the drill table reference point. The reference point is the bottom left corner if Alignment = Bottom, or top left corner if Alignment = Top.
  • Rotation - Angle in degrees that the the drill table is rotated.
  • Table Border Width - Width of the lines used to create the table border.
  • Text Height - Height of the text used in the drill table.
  • Text Width - Stroke width of the text used in the drill table.

Units

  • Imperial / Metric - Set the Units to be either Metric or Imperial.
  • Precision - Set the required precision (number of digits after the decimal point) for each type of Units.
  • Add secondary units - Enabling this displays each numerical value in both Unit types, with the secondary units enclosed in brackets.
To toggle the units of measurement used in the open dialog between metric (mm) and imperial (mil), press the Ctrl+Q shortcut. This affects the dialog only and does not change the actual measurement unit currently employed for the board, as determined by the Home | Grids and Units | Metric or Imperial setting chosen on the Ribbon.

Draw Symbols

Each hole size can be represented by one of 3 styles of drawing Symbol:

  • Show Symbols - Draw a small geometric symbol at the location of each drill site. Note that a symbol is automatically chosen for each hole size, up to a total of 15 different sizes. These symbols tend to be open in their design, if a hole center marker is required then include the Drill Guide layer in the output generation. If required, each Symbol can be replaced by a letter, this is done in the PCB Hole Size Editor, as described below.
  • Show Hole Size - Draw the numerical size of the hole at the location of each drill site. Enable Show Hole Size option to show hole size in drill table.

Controlling the Assignment of Symbols or Characters

When Symbols are chosen, the software automatically assigns a symbol for each hole size. This automatic assignment can be overridden if required, in the PCB Hole Size Editor. To display the PCB Hole Size Editor, select it in the drop down at the top of the PCB panel. Click on a Symbol in the Hole Size Editor to display the Symbol Selection dialog and change the style of that Symbol, or choose a Letter (Character) instead.

Select TrueType Font

  • Font Name - use this field to choose the required TrueType font. The drop-down list is populated with TrueType and OpenType (a superset of TrueType) fonts found in the \Windows\Fonts folder. Note, the list will only include entries for detected (and uniquely named) root fonts. For example, Arial and Arial Black will be listed but Arial Bold, Arial Bold Italic, etc will not. Use the Bold and Italic options to add emphasis to the text.
  • Bold - enable this option to make the comment text bold.
  • Italic - enable this option to make the comment text italic.

By default, the software links to a used TrueType font (they are not stored in the PCB file), which means the same font must be present on each PC that the design is moved to.

 

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