I am currently using several footprints in my pcb design which have tPlace silkscreens that extend beyond the board boundaries, and I was wondering what the implications of such silkscreens are since they are not cropped up in the resulting gerber files? Will a PCB shop normally disregard any design elements that hang beyond the board boundaries, or will these silkscreen elements cause issues in board layout, either artificially extending the board dimensions or causing problems at the board shop where my silkscreen overlaps other boards?
I am using the tPlace elements of other components on the board to determine the orientation of various smd devices, so I don't want to simply remove the tPlace layer from the cam job.
Is there any way that I can crop these tPlace entities without manually editing the individual footprints, or does it matter at all?
Best Answer
Your final DRC before creating the Gerbers should give you errors for them. Your PCB shop will also perform a DRC before starting production, and should give you a call about it. There may have been an error in creating the Gerbers, and they should check. I wouldn't appreciate it if my PCB shop will discard the overhang without consulting me, like Nick says.