Excellon Drilling

Drill Setup converts imported plated through-hole (PTH) and non-plated through-hole (NPTH) data into CNC drilling operations grouped by hole diameter and assigned drill tool.

1. Check the imported drill data

Select View Excellon on the main toolbar.
Check that the expected holes are visible and positioned correctly.
Compare the hole locations and board scale with the source PCB or Gerber viewer.
Make sure the required physical drills are available in the Tool Library.

Correct import problems first: missing, shifted or incorrectly scaled drill holes must be corrected in the source files or import settings before creating CNC drilling operations.

2. Open Drill Setup

Select DrillSetup on the main toolbar, or open Manufacturing > Drill Setup. TraceFab combines the imported PTH and NPTH data and creates one row for each exact nominal hole diameter.

Tool Library : to calculate drill operations, you must have a suitable tool ( Drill ) in the Tool Library. If not available, please first create a drilling tool in : Parameters > Tool Library and add a suitable tool for drilling.

TraceFab Drill Setup window showing detected hole groups, tool assignments and drill-plan modes — Drill Setup groups imported holes by diameter and assigns a physical drill tool.

Drill table

#: selects and identifies a complete hole-diameter group.
Hole diameter: nominal diameter found in the imported PCB data.
Qty: number of holes in that diameter group.
Tool Override: selected or suggested physical drill tool.
Ena.: includes or excludes the entire diameter group.

One row represents a group: the quantity can contain many holes with the same nominal diameter. All groups are enabled by default.

3. Choose a drill-plan mode

Auto Match Tools

This is the default mode. TraceFab first looks for a drill that matches the nominal diameter within 0.02 mm. If no match exists, it selects the smallest larger drill, or finally the closest available drill.

Use Excellon Table Overrides

Select the required drill manually in the Tool Override column for every enabled row. Use this when specific hole groups need a different tool or when you want direct control over tool changes.

One Tool For All Holes

Assigns one physical drill to every enabled hole group. This avoids tool changes, but all included holes are drilled at that one diameter.

Verify every tool assignment: automatic matching is only a starting point. A fallback or one-tool plan can enlarge holes and may damage nearby pads, annular rings, tracks or mechanical clearances.

4. Preview a hole group

Select the required group using its row number in the # column.
Select Preview.
Compare the highlighted holes and their quantity with the selected table row.

TraceFab PCB viewport highlighting the holes in one selected Excellon diameter group — Preview highlights only the holes belonging to the selected diameter group.

Preview is an inspection tool: it does not create drilling operations and does not replace the Calculate step.

5. Calculate and review the drill plan

Pre-calculation checklist

The listed hole diameters and quantities agree with the imported PCB data.
Every required PTH and NPTH group is enabled.
Every enabled group has the intended physical drill assigned.
No selected drill is too large for surrounding copper or mechanical clearances.
Every intentionally disabled group can safely be omitted from the PCB.

Select Calculate.
TraceFab validates the enabled rows and their tool assignments.
Hole groups assigned to the same Tool ID are combined into one drilling operation.
Review the resulting drill operations later in the Manufacturing window.

Drill Setup does not define all CNC motion: drilling depth, extra depth below the PCB, plunge feed, safe height and related machining values come from the CAM Parameters. Verify them before generating and running G-code.

To change a tool assignment or enabled group, update the Drill Setup table and select Calculate again. The new drill plan replaces the previous calculated operations.

Drilling is now prepared. The calculated operations become available in the Manufacturing window. Calculate does not generate the final G-code.