I started 'stuffing' PC boards when I was 12 with through hole components. Only over the past couple of years have I escaped from the drone of fever pitch electronic manufacturing technology.
This was interesting, but only scratched the surface. I spent 20 years designing PC boards, designing test setups, assembly lines, etc. Automation is an awesome thing, but PCB design software packages, circuit design and simulation software and manufacturing software are generally incompatable requiring data manipulation to actually be useful. Although there are 'industry standards' regarding many component sizes, not all manufacturers fit these standards. The result is that every single part used on the PCB has to be checked to manufacturers specifications before it is incorperated into a design. A very tedious process where .001' can be the equivalent to a football field. Physical tolerances of components have to be added up and analyzed. Every automatated manufacturing piece of equipment has its own abilities & tolerance constraints to work within. Large multi layer PCB's have to take copper size change with temperature iinto consideration to prevent warpage. Most designs never make it to production for many reasons. It is an amazing thig to see a product when it finally hits production!
