HQDFM from NextPCB is a free to use PCB DFM analysis software to check manufacturability issues. It is very easy to use, just import your Gerber files and easily visualize your design and verify if your files contain all necessary data for manufacturing.
Advantage of DFM Analysis tool
Many PCB manufacturers boast free DFM reviews as part of their offerings. In the most basic sense, DFM review checks that the boards can be manufactured by the PCB manufacturer and is a necessary stage in PCB manufacturing.
However, to avoid causing delays, factories may not thoroughly check the files or only report problems that affect the manufacturer’s ability to produce the boards.
Other DFM problems may impact the boards’ functionality, longevity or even cost. With DFM tools and knowledge at their disposal, designers can optimize their designs in their own time and rest assured that manufacturers will produce their designs as expected.
The HQDFM tool Identifies Design for Manufacture issues in seconds, checks for over 20 different DFM problems from shorts/opens, tolerances violations, drill hole and slot dimensions, spacings, etc.
I have personally used it several times and found it very useful tool for DFM check or quickly viewing Gerber files.
Let me show you some of the main features by taking one of our product (ESP32 Programmer V2) Gerber files as an example.
You can download the HQDFM software from HQNextpcb website and install it. The installation process is easy to follow like any other software installation. Once it is installed, you can open it, you will be asked to import the Gerber files as shown below:
Now, you can browse your project Gerber files and import it. After import is successful, you will be able to see your design as shown below with all layers merged together.
HQDFM Tool as Gerber Viewer
Left hand side panel allows you to see Gerber files layer by layer to inspect manually.
When you double click Top Silk, you get the view as shown below:
If we want to see Top layer, you can double click that layer and see it.
To see multiple layers together, you can select multiple layers by enabling eye mark as shown in the image below:
So, this is the basic Geber Viewer functionality of the HQDFM tool.
HQDFM tool as DFM Analysis Tool for PCB Design
Now, let me show you DFM check feature of this tool which is even more interesting and useful.
When you import the Gerber files, it will execute the DFM analysis and give you interactive report which you can access one by one from the right hand side panel as marked below:
As shown in the image above, it checks a lot of parameters for manufacturability like drill to copper spacing, copper to board edge space, dill diameter, holes to SMD pads space, track size, etc.
After analysis each parameter is marked with Yellow, Red or Green. Green obviously means no issue, yellow is warning and red is alert and designer must address it.
Let us see what are the issues HQDFM tool found on our Gerber files.
You can see, it shows Yellow for Copper to board edge space that means its a warning and designer much check if this is manufacturable by the manufacturer or not. If you click on View, you can navigate the warning area, as shown below:
The warning is basically cautioning that the copper to board edge space might be small for your PCB manufacturer so you must check their capability before sending files for production.
Let us see the next issue found i.e smallest trace spacing. It actually detected that two copper are spaced at 3.2mill which is very small from manufacturing point of view. As we see this is part of our LOGO so we can decide if we want to change it or want to leave it like this. If the track spacing in our design would have been small like less than 4mill, it will give us warning that we much check if that is manufacturable or not from our PCB manufacturer. This gives designer a warning that there could be issue from manufacturing point of view.
Let us see the third issue it found in the design which is silk screen spacing. It found two places near our USB connector where silk screen is touching with Pads which is not correct so we should modify the design. There should be sufficient space between silkscreen and any pad/drill hole from manufacturing point of view.
So, I hope you were able to see the usefulness of this tool.
Other than that, it also gives you instant quotation for the PCB and PCBA (if you upload the BOM file). And, you can place the order also from the tool.
As mentioned above, HQDFM tool can now do PCBA analysis also. I have not added BOM file but you can see in the image below that it detected that I have not placed the fiducials on the PCB which are required for Pick and place machine to get the correct orientation for component placement.
For your documentation purpose, you can export PDF report as well and see all the details listed one by one.
So, that’s all in this blog. I hope you were able to understand how to use HQDFM tool and do DFM analysis on your PCB Designs.
I think this tool is very useful and the company can make it more powerful by providing more checks in the future.
HQNextPCB is running some offer where you can order your first PCB for free, please do check that on their website.
I am running an Embedded Design House, CAPUF Embedded Pvt. Ltd, located in Bangalore, India. At CAPUF, we help companies build embedded products with our hardware and firmware design services.
We also help in design optimizations for power consumption, cost, mass manufacturing, and performance.
Additionally, we develop PCB testing jigs and provide cloud-based device / production monitoring solutions.