Altium Designer Tutorial 7: How to create a Fiducials Marker in Altium Designer 21.

0:00 A brief description of Fiducials Marker.
2:15 How to create a Fiducials Marker Symbol in Altium 21.
5:00 How to create a Fiducials Marker Footprint in Altium 21.
8:45 How to add extruded 3D body to Fiducials Marker Footprint in Altium 21.
11:03 How to add Keep out to Fiducials Marker Footprint in Altium 21.
13:15 How to Integrate Fiducials Marker Symbol and Footprint in Integrated Library Altium 21.

#fiducials marker or fiducial refers to the reference point on a printed circuit board (PCB).

Through #fiducials, it is possible for solder paste printers, automatic placement machines, and optical inspection systems to precisely measure the circuit structure.

Fiducials are alternatively also referred as circuit pattern recognition marks.

#Fiducials in electronic manufacturing

In highly automated electronics production, machines with image recognition systems (vision systems) are utilized. These measure the actual positioning of the circuit structure on the circuit board before solder paste printing, SMD assembly or AOI inspection.
During the measurement, the #fiducials on the printed circuit board are approached and their position is determined. Subsequently, these positions are compared with the mathematical image and any possible expansion, compression or rotation of the circuit board can be compensated.

What happens if there are no #fiducials available?
Missing #fiducials lead to an increased set-up effort during the placement as alternative markings such as vias or boreholes have to be used. #Fiducials are more precise compared to the alternative marks since they are etched in the same production step as the circuit structures.
It is not uncommon that manual reworking is necessary in order to be able to assemble the circuit boards automatically. In inopportune cases, fine pitch elements cannot be assembled if there is insufficient accuracy for position detection.
#Fiducials Marker
#Altium FM
#Altium #pcbdesign
#reference point
#pcb reference point
#altium fiducial test point
#testpoint

[ericbrown]

Wonderful and easy to follow. Thank you!

[clkunde]

Is not sense for me create a schematic symbol for the fiducial. There isn't logical functionality for them.