What problem does this feature solve?
DFM stands for Design for Manufacturing (or Design for Manufacturability). It is a check that confirms the board as designed can actually be built by a PCB fabricator.
Every fabricator has its own list of capabilities and a threshold for each violation type. If a board falls outside those ranges, the fabricator cannot manufacture it – and you usually only find out after you have already sent the data out for quoting.
Luminovo's DFM tool applies solid industry-standard thresholds to four violation types and checks your board against them. That gives you a quick, self-service manufacturability check before you talk to your fabrication partner.
With it, you can:
See violations directly on the board, layer by layer, in a familiar Gerber-viewer layout.
Set your own thresholds to match the capabilities of the fabricator you actually work with.
Review, jump to, and ignore individual violations.
Push corrected values back into the PCB specification.
Where to find it
This feature is behind a feature flag. It may not be switched on for your account yet. If you do not see the DFM card or the Investigate in Web-DFM button described below, the tool is not enabled for your workspace – contact your Luminovo point of contact or [email protected] to have it turned on.
There are two ways into the tool.
From the PCB dashboard
Open a project and go to the Design tab.
On the PCB dashboard, find the DFM card – it sits next to Specification and carries a NEW tag. You can also open the tool from the DFM entry in the PCB navigation.
Click the card to open the tool.
From the PCB specification
Open the PCB specification tab and find the Characteristics section. Click Investigate in Web-DFM to jump straight to the viewer.
Prerequisites
The DFM tool checks your board against its actual manufacturing data, so a project needs PCB manufacturing files – Gerber or ODB++ – already uploaded and processed before the DFM card has anything to show. If no manufacturing data has been uploaded yet, upload it on the PCB dashboard first; there is nothing else to prepare, and no additional access or role is required beyond what you already need to open the Design tab.
The three panels
When the tool opens, you see your board with violations marked in red. The screen is split into three panels:
Left – the layers list, which works just like a Gerber viewer.
Center – the board viewer, with zoom and pan controls.
Right – the PCB specification fields and the violations list.
How to use it
1. Choose which layers to display
The left panel groups your files into Outer Layers and Inner Layers. Each layer shows a colour swatch and a badge with its violation count.
Use the eye icon at the top of the panel to show all or hide all layers at once.
Click the eye icon on an individual layer to turn just that layer on or off.
You can display as many layers at a time as you like.
2. Navigate the board
In the centre panel you can:
Zoom in and out with the + and − buttons to inspect violations closely.
Pan by dragging the board.
Click the home button to return to the centred default view.
Red highlights are the violations themselves, so you can zoom straight in on a problem area.
3. Set your own thresholds
Click the settings icon in the top-right corner of the centre panel to open DFM Configuration.
Set the minimum allowed values. Anything below these thresholds will be flagged as a violation.
Use the four sliders to set the minimum for each violation type, then click Apply Settings.
Tip: If you work closely with a fabrication partner, ask them which minimums they can manufacture – minimum trace width, minimum copper clearance, and so on – and enter those values here. The check is only as meaningful as the thresholds behind it.
Once you apply, the board and the violation counts are recalculated against your new settings straight away.
4. Understand the four violation types
The violations panel on the right shows the total count, plus a tab and a count for each type.
Violation type | What it means | Why it matters |
Trace width | The thickness of a trace. | If a trace is too thin it can break down, so you no longer get a continuous circuit along it. |
Copper clearance | How far apart two copper features are. | Copper features that sit too close together can short. Some fabricators physically cannot manufacture them at all. |
Solder mask dam | The gap between two features that will be covered by solder mask. | If the dam is too thin, the solder mask will not adhere properly and gets washed away later in the fabrication process. |
Annular ring | The ring of copper around a drill hole. | Each fabricator has a minimum ring width that it can reliably produce. |
5. Review individual violations
In the violations list at the bottom right:
Select a violation – it is highlighted in white on the board.
Click it to jump straight to that spot in the board viewer.
Hover over the highlighted feature to see the details: what was measured, what is required, and which rule was triggered.
Use the Open, Ignored, and Group by file controls above the list to filter and organise what you are looking at.
6. Ignore violations you have already assessed
If you review a violation and conclude it is not a real problem, you can take it off the list.
Tick the violations you want to dismiss.
Open the ⋮ menu next to the filter buttons.
Choose Ignore.
The menu also offers Select All and Unselect All.
Ignored violations stay available under the Ignored filter, so nothing is lost.
7. Update the PCB specification
At the top of the right-hand panel you will find Min. layer structure and Annular ring. These read from – and can write back to – your PCB specification.
Min. layer structure – the minimum Outer and Inner values, taken from the top/bottom layers and the inner layers respectively.
Annular ring – the Smallest ring and the number of Breakouts (holes with a ring ≤ 0).
If the DFM results show a different value from what is recorded, edit the field and click the ✓ button.
Luminovo then warns you that you are about to change the PCB specification and lists exactly what will be written. Click Apply to confirm.
What is a breakout? A breakout is a drill hole that is not fully enclosed by its copper pad – the drill extends beyond the edge of the pad. That is what holes with ring ≤ 0 refers to.
Good to know
The DFM check runs against thresholds you control. The defaults are sensible industry-standard values, not your fabricator's actual capabilities – set them yourself for a meaningful result.
The tool is a first-level check. It tells you whether the board is manufacturable at a basic level; it does not replace your fabricator's own DFM report.
Violation counts update live whenever you change the configuration.
Need help?
If you run into issues with the DFM tool, you can:
Email us at [email protected], or
Send a message via the chat button in the bottom-right corner of your workspace.