PCB design guides,
from idea to factory.
Everything you need to go from “I want a board that does X” to files a manufacturer accepts — explained plainly, including the parts most guides skip. Free to read, no sign-up.
The BuildPCB Course: From Idea to Factory
Six short videos: a simple first prompt, the electronics basics that matter, working with the AI, what every factory file is, and how to order your boards.
Watch the course →How to Make a PCB with AI: Step-by-Step Guide
Describe your board in plain words and get the schematic, the routed board, a 3D model and factory files — the whole process in six steps, with a real example and a video.
Read the guide →Cómo hacer una PCB con IA: guía paso a paso
Describe tu placa con tus palabras y obtén el esquema, la placa rutada, el modelo 3D y los archivos de fábrica, en seis pasos y con un ejemplo real.
Leer la guía →AI PCB Design Tools in 2026: An Honest Comparison
BuildPCB, Flux, Quilter, JITX, Diode, DeepPCB, KiCad with AI and chatbots — what each AI really does, what you need to bring, and which one fits you.
Read the comparison →What Is a PCB? Printed Circuit Boards Explained
What a printed circuit board actually is, layer by layer: substrate, copper, solder mask, silkscreen, traces, pads and vias — and the board types you will meet.
Read the guide →How to Make a PCB: A Complete Beginner's Guide
Every stage from defining what the board must do to ordering it: choosing parts you can actually buy, drawing the schematic, placement, routing, checks and manufacturing.
Read the guide →AI PCB Design: How AI Actually Designs a Circuit Board
The real pipeline behind automated board design — what AI does well, where it still needs a human, and how to use it without shipping a board that doesn't work.
Read the guide →Gerber, BOM and Pick-and-Place: Every File a Factory Needs
What each file contains, which extension is which, what gets an order rejected, and the checklist to run before you upload anything.
Read the guide →How Much Does a PCB Cost? A Realistic Breakdown
What a board really costs — fabrication, shipping, duty, parts and assembly — what drives the price up, and nine practical ways to bring it down.
Read the guide →PCB Design Software for Beginners: An Honest Comparison
KiCad, EasyEDA, Fusion, Altium and AI tools compared without the sales pitch — including where each one is genuinely a bad fit.
Read the guide →How to Describe a PCB to an AI (With Examples That Work)
The six things a good brief always answers, four worked before/after examples you can copy, and what you should never specify.
Read the guide →Where to begin
If you have never designed a board, read How to Make a PCB first — it explains the whole process and the decisions that matter. If you already know the process and want to understand what automated design can and cannot do, start with AI PCB Design.
When you are close to ordering, Gerber, BOM and Pick-and-Place covers exactly what you upload and the mistakes that get orders rejected. And if you want to use BuildPCB itself, the user manual walks through the studio screen by screen.
Describe your board. We build it.
BuildPCB turns a plain-language description into a complete, manufacturing-ready design: schematic, real in-stock parts, layout, routing, every check, and factory files. It is in beta — review the result, and have a professional check anything complex before you manufacture.
Start designing