Many electronics engineers have made mistakes with component footprints during PCB layout. The footprint is either oversized or undersized, and in some cases, component interference occurs. As a result, components cannot be soldered onto the fabricated PCB, forcing manual jumper wire fixes. In severe cases, the entire board is scrapped. For example, the footprint of U8 in the figure below is designed too small, making chip soldering impossible.
Many electronics engineers have made mistakes with component footprints during PCB layout. The footprint is either oversized or undersized, and in some cases, component interference occurs. As a result, components cannot be soldered onto the fabricated PCB, forcing manual jumper wire fixes. In severe cases, the entire board is scrapped. For example, the footprint of U8 in the figure below is designed too small, making chip soldering impossible.
Is there a simple method to check PCB footprints in advance and avoid such pitfalls?
Absolutely! I will share the result first, then the step-by-step tutorial.
Result
You can print the PCB design onto paper in a 1:1 scale, then place the physical component onto the printed paper to verify the footprint size. This allows you to roughly check if the footprint is correct, revise it if wrong, and only submit the design for fabrication once verified. The figure below shows the 1:1 printed PCB layout; the chip fits perfectly when placed on top.
The fabricated board matched the size perfectly, successfully avoiding the footprint pitfall.
Tutorial
We will use Altium Designer as an example to demonstrate the printing process.
Steps:
File → Page Setup → Set Scale to 1 → Advanced → Uncheck the Bottom Layer (print the Top Layer first; for the Bottom Layer, enable Mirror: Advanced → Check Mirror for Bot Layer)
Continue with:
File → Page Setup → Preview → Print
Export to PDF, then send the PDF directly to the printer.
The final fabricated PCB is shown below—see how simple this method is?
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