Drill Table
Contents
Parent page: PCB Objects
The Drill Table presents a live summary of all drill holes present in the board.
Summary
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. Each drill size can be represented by a symbol, a letter or the actual hole size. When a drill drawing is generated for the board, each actual drill site is marked by a symbol, as shown in the image below. 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.
Availability
A Drill Table can only be placed in the PCB editor. Note that the drill table must be placed on the Drill Drawing layer, it will be enabled and selected automatically during placement. To place a drill table, click Home | Board | 
.
Placement
After launching the command, a drill table will appear attached to the cursor. Position the table in a suitable location outside the board and click to place it.
Graphical Editing
Moving a Drill Table
Click and hold anywhere within the drill table, then move it to a new location in the PCB editor workspace.
Interactively Resizing a Drill Table
The drill table is automatically sized based on the specified Text Height setting, as well as the number of different hole sizes (rows) and the number of defined columns. To interactively resize the table, click once to select it, then click and hold on a corner vertex. The Confirm dialog will appear, reporting that the table is locked, click Yes to continue and resize the table. Note that interactively resizing the table will also increase the font size.
Non-Graphical Editing
The following methods of non-graphical editing are available:
Editing via the Properties Dialog
Dialog page: Drill Table
This method of editing uses the following dialog to modify the properties of a drill table object.
The Drill Table dialog.
The Drill Table dialog can be accessed during placement by pressing the Tab key.
After placement, the dialog can be accessed in one of the following ways:
- Double-clicking on the placed drill table object.
- Placing the cursor over the drill table object, right-clicking and choosing Properties from the context menu.
Drill Table Sort Order
To sort the drill table, click the required column heading. A small triangle will appear, indicating the current sort direction - click a second time to reverse the sort direction. Multi-level sorting is supported, hold the Shift key as you click to sub-sort by a second (or third) column. In the image below the table has been sorted by:
- Plated (to separate plated from non-plated), then
- Hole Type (to order holes to Round then Slot then Square), then
- Finished Size (to order by size).
Sort the drill table by clicking the column headings, hold shift and click to sub-sort by other columns.
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.
Configure the assignment of Symbol-to-hole size in the PCB Hole Size
editor (PCB panel). The assignments are stored in the PCB file.
There are a total of 15 symbols available, as shown below. If there are more than 15 different hole sizes in the PCB then letters are automatically assigned.
The 15 pre-defined graphical symbols that are available.
Editing via the PCB Inspector Panel
Panel page: PCB Inspector
The PCB Inspector panel enables the designer to interrogate and edit the properties of one or more design objects in the active document. Used in conjunction with appropriate filtering, the panel can be used to make changes to multiple objects of the same kind, from one convenient location.
Notes
The drill table will appear on all output that includes the Drill Drawing layer. The image below shows an example of drill drawing output, showing each drill site marked by the symbol that has been assigned to that hole size. This example output also include the Drill Guide layer, which adds a small cross at each hole site.
Example output of the Drill Drawing layer showing the Drill Table next to the board, with each drill site marked by the appropriate hole size symbol.