About this tutorial
To use AISLER with Altium Circuitstudio you will need to export your project as a Gerber-Package. Please make sure you zip your Gerber-Files. You will have to setup NC Drill files and the Gerber Export appropriately.
You will have to setup NC Drill Files and Gerber Fabrication output properly for us to understand your designs.
Step 1: Configure NC Drill Files
We do not use the Gerber plots for drills but instead use the NC Drill files. You will have to setup your NC Drill files properly.
Navigate to File » Fabrication Outputs » NC Drill Files to setup NC Drill Files.
Step 2: Configure Gerber Setup Dialog
Please navigate to File » Fabrication Outputs » Gerber Files to setup Gerber Export.
Setup Gerber > General Tab
Select “inches” and 2:4 precision in the General Tab
Setup Gerber > Layers
Select the following layers:
- G Top Overlay
- G Top Paste
- G Top Solder
- G Top Layer
- G Bottom Layer
- G Bottom Solder
- G Bottom Paste
- G Bottom Overlay
- G Mechanical 1
Setup Gerbers > Drill Drawing
Please deselect all Drill Drawing options in the Gerber Export, we will used NC Drill files instead.
Setup Gerbers > Apertures
Select Embedded apertures (RS274X) Checkbox
Setup Gerbers > Advanced
Film size and Aperture Matching Tolerances are project specific, so please add the project’s relevant settings here.
Set all other values according to the following screenshot.
Step 3: Cleaning up
Altium is known to generate a lot of other stuff in the output files, please ensure to only include the relevant ones.
Please only include the following files:
| Gerber Layer Name |
Layer |
| project_name.toplayer.ger |
Top Layer |
| project_name.bottomlayer.ger |
Bottom Layer |
| project_name.topsoldermask.ger |
Top Soldermask |
| project_name.bottomsoldermask.ger |
Bottom Soldermask |
| project_name.topsilkscreen.ger |
Top Silkscreen |
| project_name.bottomsilkscreen.ger |
Bottom Silkscreen |
| project_name.boardoutline.ger |
Board Outline |
| project_name.xln |
PTH Drills |
| project_name_npth.xln |
NPTH Holes |
| project_name.toppaste.ger |
Top Paste (Stencil) |
| project_name.bottompaste.ger |
Bottom Paste (Stencil) |
| project_name.internalplane1.ger |
Internal plane 1 |
| project_name.internalplane2.ger |
Internal plane 2 |
Step 4: Zip it up
Step5: Profit 
Upload your project
Hello! For those of you who love Altium CirctuitStudio and Aisler, but are annoyed with the file renaming, I offer you my script that automatically renames all files according to Aisler requirements. If you are engineer, you will be able to tweak it for other programs / Altium versions as well. I am using extensions from CircutiStudio 1.5, default project, using “Generate Outputs” in Project ribbon.
First, create a file named aislerRenamer.bat in the folder where your gerbers and NC drill files are copied. Then paste these lines in your aislerRenamer.bat (you can use notepad or notepad++ or something similar to edit aislerRenamer.bat file):
ren *.GTL *.toplayer.ger
ren *.GBL *.bottomlayer.ger
ren *.GTS *.topsoldermask.ger
ren *.GBS *.bottomsoldermask.ger
ren *.GTO *.topsilkscreen.ger
ren *.GBO *.bottomsilkscreen.ger
ren *.Outline *.boardoutline.ger
ren *-Plated.txt *.xln
ren *-NonPlated.TXT *_npth.xln
ren *.GTP *.toppaste.ger
ren *.GBP *.bottompaste.ger
ren *.G1 *.internalplane1.ger
ren *.G2 *.internalplane2.ger
pause
I put “pause” at the end so that you can read result in Command Prompt window. Without pause, it would just close immediately and you would not read errors, if any.
Then save and close aislerRenamer.bat file. Then double-click on it, and it will do the renaming error-free in milliseconds. You may have to refresh File Explorer with F5 to see files renamed, especially on Win11.
If this script does not find a file, for example, Internal Layer 1, because you only have 2-layer board, don’t worry - it just skips that file and goes to the next line in script.
Best regards,
Andris Igaunis
2 Likes
Hello. Is there a way to use circuit studio to generate the files for assembly by Aisler (as opposed to just PCB)?
Hello, I have the same question. We are using Circuit Studio and would like to order the assembly service. Can you please explain how to do it ? So far I didn’t manage to find any information about it.
Andris>
Thanks for sharing. That saves time.
Kind regards,
Przemek
Hello,
for those interested in Assembly @ Aisler and using Circuit Studio.
I got reply from Aisler about my assembly question. Unfortunately, as of now Aisler does not support assembly outputs from Circuit Studio. So you can order PCBs from them, but they won’t do assembly unless you are using one of the following formats (as of 22nd July 2022):
•Altium: Push to AISLER
•KiCad: .kicad_pcb or .brd
•Autodesk Eagle: .brd
•Autodesk Fusion 360: .brd
•Target 3001: .t3001
•Fritzing: .fzz
•LibrePCB .lppz
Kind regards,
Przemek
