Can I set Altium to export all the production files I need at once? - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: vixo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2023, 12:21:55 pm
content: Usually when I export production files I export- Gerbers- NC drill files- Pick and place- BOMCan I set altium to export all these at once? Even if I have to write some code to do it im prepared to spend a bit of energy to streamline this, it annoys me doing exporting all the files, closing the preview windows they open up!

author: Psi
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2023, 12:35:46 pm
content: Yes, no code needed, you create what's known as an outjob. It's part of your projectThe outjob has a few categories and each can have many items added to it.Then you just have to generate that category and all items linked to it are created at once.https://www.altium.com/documentation/altium-designer/streamlining-generation-of-manufacturing-data-with-output-jobs?version=18.1

author: vixo
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2023, 01:48:38 pm
content: Brilliant! thankyou!

author: JohnG
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2023, 03:13:33 pm
content: Note that you can also have multiple outjob files in a project. This can come in handy if you need data in multiple formats, say one for production and one for documentation.For example:Production:Panel gerbers+drill, ODB++, pdf component placement layers, manufacturing BOM, P&P, assembly drawingsDocumentation:Single board gerbers+drill and OBD++, single board PDF layers, 3D pdf, documentation BOM (different from manufacturing BOM), schematics, PCB step filesI'm sure I missed stuff, but you get the idea. You can also set up output directory structures using variable names, though there are limits to this and the documentation is rather poor. If it's your first go at it, be prepared to spend some time to get it right.John

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 13, 2023, 03:41:56 pm
content: You can also add an outjob to your PCB project template, so your standard outjob file gets included automatically. Or you can store a single outjob file (or multiple outjob file variants) outside the project, and link them into the project externally, so that you only have to update one outjob if your output needs change. Of course that requires that the outjob be project-agnostic, so you have to plan for that in how you set up the outputs, project parameters, variants, etc.

author: jmarkwolf
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2023, 04:10:50 pm
content: I've always found Outjob to be tedious and laborious to configure, more so than just generating the required files one-at-a-time.I like the idea of doing it with a "batch file process" that is outjob, but like I said above...I haven't used it in over 5 years. Has the configuration improved in that time?

author: ajb
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: January 16, 2023, 07:15:20 pm
content: Quote from: jmarkwolf on January 16, 2023, 04:10:50 pmReally? Sure, it requires a bit of setup, but once you have all of your outputs configured--including output file names and folder locations, which can be parameter-driven--outjobs are SO much faster. You also just have a lot more power, in terms of having multiple kinds of outputs completely pre-configured, and outputs that are responsive to parameters, multiple BOM output types with different template/part filter settings, etc etc, that make the investment well worthwhile IMO.