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EFA CAMverse › From practice · episode 02

SeriesEFA CAMverse compact · episode 02 of 06 Feature in focus

Create the
assembly plan
from the BOM.

The customer supplies the assembly plan as a PDF for the full assembly, and the bill of materials defines the variant. Instead of marking up the plan by hand, you regenerate it with EFA CAMverse to match the bill of materials.

How it works Download for free
1list for the whole variant
0manual mark-ups
3formats for the plan
The starting point in everyday EMS work

The customer sends the plan for the full assembly. A variant is built.

The assembly plan and pick & place data apply to the full assembly. Which variant is built is defined in the bill of materials.

Assembly plan from the customer.pdf

Assembly_plan_customer.pdf J1U1C1C2R1R2Q1R5C7 Variant A:Do not placeR5 + C7!Remove test points

The plan shows the full assembly. To adapt it to the variant, it is marked up by hand today: on the printout with highlighter and crossings-out, or in a PDF editor or drawing program with stamps, redactions and colour markings.

Bill of materialsVariant A

Item Reference Part 1 C1, C2 100 nF 2 J1 Pin header 3 Q1 Transistor 4 R1, R2 10 kΩ 5 U1 Microcontroller

It defines which components are placed for the variant. If the customer needs a different variant, only the bill of materials changes.

This is time-consuming, error-prone and has to be redone for every variant and every revision.
How it works

Assembly plan regenerated. Matching the BOM.

  1. Drawn, not painted overEFA CAMverse draws the plan itself, straight from the component data in your data set.
  2. Deselect with a clickComponents that are not placed disappear completely, including body, pads and label. The original data remains unchanged.
  3. Hide test points and moreAnything not in the bill of materials, such as test points, is deselected and does not appear in the plan.
J1U1C1C2R1R2Q1 R5C7TP1TP2TP3 J1U1C1C2R1R2Q1 Full assembly Assembly variant
The fastest way

One list is enough.

Instead of deselecting hundreds of components one by one, you load the bill of materials for the variant. The result is an assembly plan that fits production.

Load variant · from the BOM

Load the BOM. Variant done.

With “Load variant” you read in the variant’s bill of materials, as a text or Excel file, and EFA CAMverse selects the matching components automatically.

BOM variant A C1C2J1Q1R1R2U1 Load list J1U1C1C2R1R2Q1 7 selected · 5 deselected
  • Components from the list are selected automatically.
  • All others are deselected automatically.
  • Nobody has to draw in the PDF or click through hundreds of components any more.
More about the assembly print →
The result · your assembly plan

Independent of the customer’s PDF.

It is regenerated and matches exactly the variant that is built.

YOUR ASSEMBLY PLANAssembly variant A
PlanThe assembly plan is output as PDF, JPG or PNG.
Hand-overYou save the selection as a reference list. In the GenCAD and DXF export, you can include only the placed components.
ViewsTop and bottom have their own views, and the variant also appears in 3D.
More about export →

No more manual mark-up in the PDF.

Frequently asked questions

Good to know

Which data is the assembly plan generated from?

From any data that contains components, for example Gerber X3, ODB++, IPC-2581, KiCad or EAGLE. If only classic Gerber data is available, first add the coordinates as shown in episode 01.

What happens to the original data?

The original data remains unchanged. Deselected components are only hidden and can be shown again with a click at any time.

Can I leave out test points?

Yes. Anything not in the variant’s bill of materials, such as test points, is deselected and does not appear in the plan. If test points should stay visible, exclude them from the labels only, using a name pattern such as TP*.

In which formats do I output the plan and the selection?

You print the assembly plan, including to a PDF printer, or save it as PNG or JPG. You save the variant’s selection as a reference list in TXT or CSV format.

All about the assembly print →

Try it yourself?

EFA CAMverse is free to use as a viewer – unlock advanced features whenever you need them. Native on Windows, your data stays local.

More about EFA CAMverse
EFA CAMverse 2026 · free viewer · Windows 10/11 · 64-bit