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Kalaslas , 12-04-2025, 10:08 AM

I'm considering moving my company from using the Gerber X2 format for our PCBs to instead using either ODB++ or IPC-2581, but I'm still reading up on what it means, changes, consequences, pros & cons. Does anyone have any experience on making the shift that they are willing to share? What did you choose to go for & why? Was it a smooth change, did you do anything to verify the designs with the new file format?

Robert Feranec , 12-04-2025, 11:14 AM

i keep using gerbers as they look safe to me. ODB++ can include a LOT of information about design - manufacturers love it as it helps for example with checking, but I prefer only to share the essential info. I am curious to hear what others think and use

QDrives , 12-04-2025, 10:20 PM

Cons:
1) With ODB++ the netnames are included too, so it is easier to reverse engineer the product.
2) All parameters are included. So if you have 'internal' parameters, it is shared. Also no 'control' over what is important of the parameters.
3) IPC-2581 is even worse as all layers are exported.
4) Everything is in one big package. Both bare board and assembly. If you outsource assembly and (you or they) outsource the fabrication, the fabricator also gets all the assembly data.

It is all about IP protection for me.

With 'gerber' there are also some problems if you simply use "export" or job-files. The pathname of the project may be written in the files too.
If you have your customer name in that path, the EMS/fabricator can see it too.
One of them is the pick-and-place file.
The 'solution' is to use project releaser as that will place it in a temp folder.
Copy-paste from my bug report in 2022:
• .LDP in NC-Drill
• .RUL in gerber
• .RUL in ODB++ (\odb\user)
• .REP in ODB++
• .TXT and .CSV in Pick and place file
• .REP in test point export (IPC-D-356A and “errors”), but has it of a .tmp file
• .DRC and .HTML in design rule check