How to place image onto a circuit board in SOLIDWORKS PCB

You may find yourself needing to insert an image onto a circuit board for a variety of reasons. Images enable designers to display objects such as company logos, bar codes, warning signs, and QR codes. As you can see below I have used the SOLIDWORKS PCB place image tool to brand this board with the Javelin logo.

Selecting an image

To insert an image, you must first have a PCB document open and active in 2D View. You can find the image insertion option by navigating to Home > Place > Image

Access via the ribbon

It is recommended to choose an image with a transparent background to ensure the highest quality. For images with noticeable white space such as bar codes and QR codes, the white space will become transparent automatically when opened.

Resizing an image

When you first insert an image, four squares will appear around the image. To resize the image, simply left click any of the four squares and drag to the desired dimensions.

Drag to resize

Placing an image

An image can be rotated using SPACE for a counter-clockwise rotation 90° and SHIFT+SPACE for a clockwise rotation 90°. Using X and Y, will flip the image along the x-axis or y-axis respectively.

Rotate or mirror images

Image Properties

To further modify an image, the PCB Inspector dialog can be accessed. Highlight the entire image, HOLD SHIFT and DOUBLE CLICK the image to open the dialog box.

Customize image properties

From here, parameters can be modified such as a keepout around the image, or the layer on which the image will be etched on. It is important to note that by default, the silkscreen layers of the board are the “Top Overlay” and “Bottom Overlay” respectively. To insert images on the flip side of the board specify the layer as “Bottom Overlay”.

To learn more about SOLIDWORKS PCB

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