Ask the cost question while the board is still open
The PCBoffer plugin sits in the board editor. You set the quantity, press calculate cost, and get the derived board data and the price of the fully assembled board back, without exporting, zipping and mailing the fabrication data. A run takes 30 to 60 seconds, and you carry on with the layout while it does.
Between a finished layout and a first price sits a media break
Anyone who wants to know what a board costs leaves the CAD system today: export fabrication data, zip ODB++ or Gerber, add the placement file and the bill of materials, upload or mail it. Every one of those steps can go wrong, and the most expensive mistake is invisible: the export writes placement coordinates in inches by default. Read that file as millimetres and every component sits off by a factor of 25.4, so the calculation runs on a board that does not exist. The plugin takes those steps out of your hands and fixes the unit before the file is even written.
Four steps, no file shuffling
- 1
Open the board
You keep working in the layout as before. The plugin sits in the board editor tools menu and changes nothing about your project.
- 2
Set the quantity
Batch size decides the unit price more than any single component does. You enter it in the dialog instead of describing it in an e-mail.
- 3
Calculate cost
The plugin exports geometry, placement coordinates and the bill of materials and sends them to the platform. A run takes 30 to 60 seconds.
- 4
Read the result
Back comes the price of the fully assembled board, not just the bare board price: the board from board house quotations, the components at live distributor prices, the assembly from the plant's machine model. Plus the derived board data the figure was built from.
Your CAD environment
The plugin is the same tool on both sides: it exports the fabrication data set from the running program and talks to the same interface.
KiCad
AvailableThe plugin sits in the board editor tools menu and reads the open project. It changes nothing in your layout, and you do not have to write an export file for it.
Altium Designer
AvailableAltium brings the same route with its own SDK: fabrication data straight out of the running program, with no detour through the file system. That client exists and hands over the same data set as under KiCad.
Why the figure matches the board you actually have
Geometry and stackup as ODB++
The export carries layers, drills, copper areas and component positions in one package. That is the basis for every statement about manufacturability and about the price of the assembled board.
Placement coordinates in millimetres
The unit is forced at export time instead of trusting the default. The default is inches, and the difference is a factor of 25.4.
Bill of materials with manufacturer part numbers
The part number column is searched for, not assumed. One project calls it MPN, the next Manufacturer Part Number, the third does not have one.
No silent send without part numbers
If the plugin finds no part number column, the dialog says so and stops. So you hear about it in the layout, not once a quotation has been built on a guessed BOM.
The figure comes with the data it was built from
What comes back is not just a price but the board data behind it: outline, layer count, drills, component count. So you can see which board was costed before you pass the figure on to purchasing or to a customer.
Manufacturability check through the platform
20 rules in the catalogue can raise a finding, each with the limit, the measured value and the spot on the board. So you get more than a price: the list of what on this board can still turn expensive in production.
- 30 to 60 s
- Length of a run, you carry on with the layout
- 3
- Files per run: geometry, placement coordinates, BOM
- 20
- Rules that can raise a manufacturability finding
- 25.4
- Factor that a confused length unit costs you
Where the result carries on
What the plugin collects is evaluated on these pages.
PCBoffer for OEMs
The overview of the developer side: manufacturability, ERP part creation, substitutes and sourcing, all usable without a factory.
Design Advisory
The manufacturability check in detail: which rule is measured how, and what a finding says about the board.
BOM software
What happens to the bill of materials after the plugin hands it over: column detection, cleanup, MPN checks and live pricing.
Frequently asked questions
- Which CAD systems is the plugin available for?
- For KiCad and for Altium Designer. In both cases the plugin sits inside the running program and hands the fabrication data set over from there, with no detour through the file system, for Altium through its own SDK. Both clients deliver the same data set to the platform, and it is evaluated the same way afterwards.
- What comes back when I press calculate cost?
- The price of the fully assembled board, and the board data it was built from: the board from board house quotations, the components at live distributor prices, the assembly from the plant's machine model. A run takes 30 to 60 seconds and you carry on with the layout throughout.
- Do I need a PCBoffer account for it?
- Yes. The plugin is the short way into the same platform, not a tool beside it: the run is costed under your organisation, and distributor access, where the component prices come from, is tied to it as well. If you do not have an account yet, request access through the contact form.
- Does the plugin check manufacturability too?
- Yes, and every finding can be checked: 20 rules in the catalogue can fire, and each finding names the limit, the measured value, the unit and the spot on the board with coordinate and layer. The findings are available through the platform, on the same data set the plugin handed over.
- Why does the plugin not calculate continuously in the background?
- Because the answer would always belong to a board that no longer exists. A run takes 30 to 60 seconds, and in that time you have long since moved a component, rerouted a track or dropped a variant. The cost question pays off at the points where you would ask it anyway: after placement, before release, when comparing two variants. That is when you press the button.
See PCBoffer in action: book a demo
30 minutes with founder Dr. Josip Strutz, on your own bill of materials: what PCBoffer calculates from it and where it takes work off your hands.
- 30-minute live session via Google Meet
- Tailored to your parts and your BOM
- No commitment required
Google Meet demo
Google Calendar