Once you have completed the PCB design in Fusion 360, the next step is to export production files to prepare for PCB manufacturing. Therefore, this tutorial will guide you on how to export Gerber files and Drill files in Autodesk Fusion 360.
This guide uses the demo board example in Fusion 360 named "Air_Quality_Sensor."
In Fusion 360, there are three options for exporting Gerber files: CAM Preview, CAM Processor, and Export Gerber, NC Drill, Assembly and Drawing Outputs. As shown in the following image:
Method One: Click on "CAM Preview" to Initiate the Export.
Select "MANUFACTURING" -> "MANUFACTURING" -> "CAM Preview"
The Manufacturing Preview window will appear, then click on the CAM Processor button in the bottom right corner, as shown in the following image.
After the CAM Processor window appears, click on the document icon next to the CAM file name, then choose "Load CAM jobs" -> "examples" and select the CAM file that suits your design. Since it is a 2-layer board, we select "example_2_layer.cam."
On the left side of the window, select "Gerber", and keep the Output Type as the default "Gerber RS-274X". Click on the "Process Job" button in the bottom right corner, and choose the desired pathway for saving.
The generated files are as follows:
Method Two: Click on "CAM Processor" to Initiate the Export.
Select "MANUFACTURING" -> "MANUFACTURING" -> "CAM Processor"
After clicking, the CAM Processor window will appear. The subsequent steps are the same as the steps in Method One.
Method Three: Click on "Export Gerber, NC Drill, Assembly and Drawing Outputs" to Initiate the Export.
Select "MANUFACTURING" -> "MANUFACTURING" -> "Export Gerber, NC Drill, Assembly and Drawing Outputs"
After clicking, the CAM Export File List window will appear. You can see various files such as profile, copper, soldermask, solderpaste, drill files, and more, which are the Gerber files.
Click OK, select the destination where you want to save the files, then click Save. And then the Gerber files will be exported and saved.
A ZIP folder containing all the necessary PCB Gerber files will be generated.
If you want to check what is inside this ZIP folder, simply right-click on the ZIP folder and extract all the files.
At this point, you have completed all the steps on how to generate Gerber and drill files using Autodesk Fusion 360.