PCB documentation is a critical part of the design chain as it defines the specifications on how an electronic product is to be built. The more detailed the documentation, the less likely the occurrence of manufacturing errors. It also ensures that repeat builds of the same product are consistent and makes final inspection easier, with less chance of unit rejection or shipment delay while waiting for assembly deviations to be approved.

BluePrint for Printed Circuit Boards is a new document authoring tool, developed in the style of a Microsoft product, that quickly creates electronic PCB drawings to drive successful PCB fabrication, assembly and inspection. BluePrint automates the documentation process and creates an electronic document which better articulates the instructions for successful PCB manufacturing and contains all the data necessary to build, view and archive the final product.

BluePrint imports the entire PCB CAD database once to automatically create and link unlimited views, details and charts while maintaining design intelligence. It uses a document and sheet-based approach, allowing users to drag-and-drop PCB views, details, notes and tables onto a drawing sheet, then arrange and format them as needed. Users view and work with the actual documents as they will be delivered to document control and manufacturing.

With BluePrint, PCB engineering groups can expect to shorten the documentation process, especially when engineering change orders (ECOs) are required. With ECOs, since all views, details and charts of the PCB remain linked to the original PCB CAD data, they are instantaneously refreshed in BluePrint whenever the original CAD data is changed.

The software supports the import of JPEG, audio and video file formats – digital content to help communicate the often complex instructions needed to fabricate or assemble a PCB. In addition, its hyperlinking capability allows the creation of links between different document elements, external files, URLs and e-mail addresses to bring information to the user.