topic Creating a Fab Drawing - how? in Fusion Electronics Forum

Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

robert1356 — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 06:29:37 GMT

Is there a way to create a Fab Drawing in the PCB document in one of the document layers? I have gerber files from another source that has the fab drawing as a layer in the gerber set and the PCB layers sit in the middle of the drawing. This is a really nice solution because you know the Fab Drawing is always with the gerbers.

Is there a way to draw outside the boundaries of the PCB? Can you define another rectangle that is the "drawing boundary" beyond the PCB outline? What layer should one use if you can? Right now my background outside the PCB is gray and inside the PCB, the default color is black. Putting anything on that gray background outside the PCB outline is darn near impossible to see.

The only Fab Drawing feature I've found so far (and it's listed as a top 5 reason to use Fusion 360) is in the 3D PCB document, I can choose New Drawing -> From Design. This seems to be the feature referred to (though the NAMING of the feature doesn't match the menus in Fusion 360). However, I have no idea how to manipulate what actually appears in the drawing or how to change it once I've placed it. All I can get is the part outlines.

Is there a tutorial somewhere on using this feature? Is there a preferred placement of the PCB in the Frame, an alignment reference? The main thing I want is the drill table along with some fab details and positioning measurements. I remember in Eagle there was ULP that would create drill table, but I think that put it in the PCB document (don't remember the layer).

Pointers here would be greatly appreciated

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

jorge_garcia — Mon, 10 Jan 2022 22:55:44 GMT

Hi @robert1356 ,

I hope you're doing well. It's possible to draw a fab drawing on the 2D PCB and that's probably the best way to go for now. You have to draw everything manually using the drawing tools. The drill table can be created using the drilllegend.ulp that ships with Fusion 360.

Fusion 360 has a drawing environment but it currently isn't setup to really handle PCBs. Which is a shame since it's very close to being perfect.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

robert1356 — Sat, 15 Jan 2022 16:18:39 GMT

@jorge_garcia Thanks for the response. What layer should I be drawing the FAB info on (tDocu ?? Document? Measures? Reference?) and how do I make it so the writing is visible? By visible I mean contrasting with the background. The default for the PCB is black, so drawing on the PCB area itself is easy to see. But if I'm doing the FAB drawing around the PCB itself in the 2D PCB layout, then it's on the gray default background and most of the documentation will be very hard to see.

Thanks,

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

jorge_garcia — Tue, 18 Jan 2022 23:12:32 GMT

Hello @robert1356,

I hope you're doing well. You could use any layer really since nothing has been specifically assigned for that. I would recommend tDocu, you can then change the layer of the color through the layer command to be something more visible. That's what I would do.

Let me now if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

robert1356 — Tue, 17 Jan 2023 23:07:44 GMT

Could I use Fusion360 to create a template, then import that into the PCB document? What type of document would I create in Fusion360? Native? DXF? something else?

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

robert1356 — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 20:16:23 GMT

I was just browsing and came across this article comparing Fusion360 and EAGLE. In the blog is an image of a Fabrication drawing - exactly what I'm trying to do. Are there any more automated ways to do this now (2 years later)?

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

jorge_garcia — Mon, 12 Feb 2024 20:31:37 GMT

Hello @robert1356,

I hope you're doing well. You can use the Drawings workspace to get those types of images. We are working to improve this functionality, because the reference designators still don't come through.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

jacobCBAW4 — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 12:08:10 GMT

Hi @jorge_garcia wanted to check if anything has changed in 2025 regarding FAB drawings. Is there a way to add an automatic drill chart in there? That appears to be the biggest thing missing.

Re: Creating a Fab Drawing - how?

jorge_garcia — Mon, 20 Oct 2025 22:49:27 GMT

Hi @jacobCBAW4 ,

I hope you're doing well. There is currently no change on this front but we agree with you it is the biggest thing missing for the drawings. There is work planned for this but it still hasn't beared fruit. Thank you for the bump, feel free to ask for an update whenever you want.

Let me know if there's anything else I can do for you.

Best Regards,