Your PCB, however, will ship from the manufacturer without any components attached. These are the files required for a manufacturer like Bay Area Circuits to actually create a PCB. You'll also export a plain text file with coordinates for drilled holes (and what size drill bit to drill them with). There are several different formats that manufacturers will accept for SSI's leading manufacturer ( Bay Area Circuits, one of our oldest and most supportive sponsors), we export Gerber files, which are machine-readable descriptions of what should be manufactured on each layer of the board.

These files describe where to place and remove copper on each layer of the board, where to drill holes, and where to expose copper and draw artwork on the outsides of the board.

PCB manufacturers require special files in order to actually make circuit boards.

They contain configuration instructions and a list of points (note the 'XY' coordinates on the lower lines) for production equipment to 'draw' shapes on each layer of a board.

Altium designer board outline gerber