
随便打开一份 PCB 发板 zip,你会看到铜层的 Gerber,还有一两个后缀是 .drl、.txt、.nc 或者 .drd 的文件。那些就是 Excellon 钻孔文件。它们和 Gerber 住一起,但说的是完全不同的语言——不是 2D 形状,而是给一只旋转钻头的机器坐标。如果 Gerber 负责告诉光绘机往哪蚀刻铜,Excellon 就负责告诉 CNC 钻孔机往哪打孔。这个格式已经用了 50 年,这篇讲清楚它里面装了什么,以及为什么搞错了就是一块废板。
Excellon 和 Gerber 一样是纯 ASCII——但语法来自完全不同的年代。头部声明单位(INCH 或 METRIC)、零压缩方式(前导或后导),然后给出一张钻头表:T1C0.3 表示 1 号钻头直径 0.3 mm,T2C0.8 表示 2 号钻头 0.8 mm,以此类推。正文部分用 T1 切到一把钻头,X12500Y8750 在那个坐标打一孔,接着换下一把钻头或者 M30(程序结束)。整个文件就三样东西:单位声明、钻头表、一长串(钻头号, X, Y)的打孔记录。比 Gerber 的光圈盖章简单得多,因为一只钻头本来就只有一件事可做。
拖一份带 Excellon 钻孔的 Gerber 压缩包进来 — 抢在板厂前面确认每个孔都落在焊盘上。
免费试用 MakerSuite 3DGerber 层画错了,光绘预览里一眼就能看出来,总有人会发现。Excellon 错了要到板厂的钻孔机开始跑你 3 块一片的量产订单的时候才暴露。单位搞错?每个孔偏 25 倍。零压缩搞错?每个孔都在错的区间。钻头漏了?板厂随便拿个相近尺寸顶上,BGA 封装根本坐不下去。点 Submit 之前花 10 秒跑一下 Excellon 查看器,救下的板比任何其他单项检查加起来都多。
钻孔文件里装着板上每个元件的引脚图案——是硬件配置里的专有信息。NDA 项目或者发布前的设计,传到云端查看器就有风险。MakerSuite 3D 用 JavaScript 在浏览器里直接解析 Excellon——不走服务器、不上传、不留缓存。和板厂内部用的是同一套解析逻辑,只是挪到客户端跑。
Gerber describes 2D shapes that get stamped onto copper layers — pads, traces, silkscreen. Drilling is a different operation: a spinning bit plunging through the board at a specific coordinate with a specific diameter. That's not a 2D shape, it's a machine instruction. Excellon was designed in the 1970s for CNC drill presses and evolved alongside Gerber as the companion format. Every fab machine treats them separately, so keeping them separate files matches the physical workflow.
PTH (plated through-hole) drills are for electrical connections — via holes, component pin holes. The fab plates the hole walls with copper so signals can cross layers. NPTH (non-plated through-hole) drills are mechanical — mounting screws, alignment pins, logo cutouts. They have no copper plating inside. Most EDA tools export them as two separate Excellon files (e.g., .DRL and .NPTH) so the fab doesn't accidentally plate a mounting hole.
Yes — it's plain ASCII. You'll see a header with tool definitions (T1C0.3 means tool 1 is 0.3 mm diameter), then a sequence of tool changes and X/Y coordinates (X12500Y8750 drills a hit at those coordinates). The coordinate format depends on the header directives (INCH vs METRIC, leading-zero vs trailing-zero suppression). This is why Excellon parsers have to read the header carefully — the same number string means different things under different directives.
Either inches or millimeters, declared in the header via INCH or METRIC directives. Inches are historical (1970s US machinery); millimeters are more common in modern exports. Units have leading-zero or trailing-zero suppression, declared separately. Getting the units or zero-suppression wrong is the #2 cause of bad boards (after layer flip) — a drill hit meant for 12.500 mm can land at 1.2500 mm if the parser guesses wrong.
Yes — drop your Gerber zip and the viewer automatically detects any .drl, .txt, .nc, or .drd files inside and renders drill hits as 3D holes through the board. Plated and non-plated are distinguished by file name conventions (DRL vs NPTH). Same browser-only parsing as Gerber — no upload, no server round-trip.
把 Gerber 压缩包拖进来 — 钻孔自动 3D 渲染
打开 Gerber 查看器