Output Job Manager

When a board reaches the point of manufacture, a designer typically needs to produce Gerber files, a drill file, a Pick and Place list, a Bill of Materials, a 3D model for the enclosure team and a PDF of the layout for the project record — all with consistent naming, organised into the right folders, and ideally with a DRC run beforehand to catch any last-minute issues. Running each of these individually is time-consuming and error-prone: it is easy to forget a file, use stale settings from a previous project, or mix up output from different revisions.

Output Jobs solve this by letting you define the complete set of outputs once, save it as a named profile, and then reproduce exactly that output set at any point in the project with a single click. The same profile works for every revision and every project that needs the same outputs.

A profile is a named collection of output tasks together with all job-level settings: the output folder path, board selection mode, pre-production checker mode, zone regeneration option, and log and manifest options. Everything visible in the Output Job Manager is saved in the profile, so switching profiles instantly restores the complete configuration for that workflow.

Profiles are stored as .poprof files (Proteus Output Profile) in the templates directory. Because they are plain XML files, they can be copied to other workstations or checked into source control alongside the project. Field codes in the folder path and filestem fields resolve at generation time using the current project's properties, so a profile shared between designers produces correctly named output regardless of where each project is saved on disk.

Each task in a profile corresponds to a specific output type. The available task types cover all common manufacturing and documentation deliverables:

Gerber — Full manufacturing file set including Gerber X2 artwork, drill files and a readme for the fabricator. Uses the same configuration as the standalone CADCAM output command.

Pick and Place — Component placement file in CSV format for automatic insertion machines, with configurable column order and units.

Bill of Materials — BOM export in CSV or ASCII format using a selected BOM template.

3D MCAD — Board export in STEP (AP203/AP214), IGES or STL format for mechanical CAD interchange.

PDF Document — Layout export as a PDF with selectable layers.

Schematic PDF — Schematic diagram exported from the ISIS module as a PDF.

SVG Image — Scalable vector export for web display or documentation.

DXF Drawing — Layout in DXF format for mechanical CAD systems.

Bitmap Image — Raster image export (PNG, BMP) at a specified resolution.

Field codes are placeholders enclosed in double braces that the job manager resolves to project-specific values at generation time. They can be used in the job folder path, task sub-folder and task filestem fields to automate file naming and directory creation.

The most useful field codes for output jobs are {{DIRECTORY}} (project folder), {{FILESTEM}} (project name without extension), {{REV}} (revision number from the design properties), {{BOARD}} (board name in multi-board projects) and {{VARIANT}} (assembly variant name).

Using {{REV}} in the job folder path is particularly powerful: each time you increment the revision number and run the job, output is automatically placed in a new revision folder without touching the profile. Over the life of a project this creates a clean archive of manufacturing data for every revision — A1, A2, B1 — with no manual folder management required.

Clicking Generate Output triggers a fixed sequence for each board in the job. First, the output folder is cleaned up — any previous output is backed up to a _prev.bk folder so the latest run is always clean. Copper zones are then regenerated to ensure manufacturing data reflects the latest design state. The pre-production checker runs next (configurable as Always, As needed, or Never) to catch DRC errors, unconnected nets and other issues before any files are written. Finally, each task is executed in order, with field codes resolved and output directories created automatically.

An output.log file records the full execution including per-task file counts and the pre-production checker result. A manifest.md file lists every output file produced, giving a complete record of the delivery package alongside the files themselves.