Electronic – pick and place cannot read LCC module

I do not know what the industry standard is, but we order our paste stencils from the same manufacturer who makes our bare PC boards.

We allow the PCB manufacturer to have some leeway in how the boards are panelized. Because it is them who decides on the board spacing in the panel, it simply made sense to have them manufacture the paste stencils as well. The fact that they give us an awesome price for the stencils when ordered at the same time as the PCBs doesn't hurt either.

We then take the final specifications (array arrangement and spacing) from the manufacturer to generate the PnP files. For our little bitty machine (prototyping), the PnP file has one copy of the PnP information plus array arrangement and spacing for the remaining boards in the panel.

I'm guessing that our CM does things similarly - we send them our PnP file as generated by our CAD software plus the same array arrangement and spacing information.

Option 1: Before drawing anything on the copper layers, draw the mechanical outline of the part onto a mechanical layer. This will help double check that pads align reasonably with pins, etc.

Option 2: Get a 3D STEP model of the package, and import it into the library. Use the 3D view to verify the alignment of the pads to the mechanical part.

Unfortunately neither of these really let you do what you seem to want, which is be able to see the vendor's drawings overlayed with your footprint as you build the footprint. But they are both pretty useful for verifying your footprint will fit the physical part before you've actually spent money on fabs.