I'm a student and am almost ready to have a PCB I designed fabricated, but I'm confused about how the board outline should be defined.
Here's what I currently have:
I also have a 20mil keepout line centered on the board edge, but hid the layer to make the board outline visible.
I'm planning on ordering the board from a company called Gold Phoenix PCB. I've emailed them several times about this, but haven't been able to get a clear answer. They said:
You only need to design the board in the way you want, size tolerance +/-10mil
Not helpful!
Then after sending the above image:
Make things simple, you need keep everything 10mil from the edge of the board.
Ok, 10mil from the edge of the board, but what do they consider to be the edge? Is it the center of the 10mil track I placed on mechanical 1, or is it the edge of the track?
The example I gave them when asking how the outline should be defined is:
Let's say your router bit diameter is 90mils and it follows the center of the line defining the board outline -- that means it would be cutting 40mils too deep into the board, which would not only mess up the connector alignment but also create a risk of shorts since I only have a copper pullback of 20mils.
I've already emailed them four times about this and don't want to get on their bad side, so can anyone explain the correct way to define the board outline to meet my requirements?