This area is slated to become a world famous PCB help section .. eh, all in good time - we are working on it! It is still quite modest, but hopefully you will find some information you need here. If you can't find what you need please feel free to send suggestions to support@batchpcb.com.

Check back soon for developments - and please visit the FAQ for answers to common questions.

Mini-HOWTOs:

These are short guides for doing things you need to do to use this website, eg. "How to upload a design" and "How to zip Gerbers", etc.

Go to the Mini-HOWTOs.

SparkFun Tutorials:

These are tutorials from SparkFun - this is a great place to start for tutorials and articles on many topics. Here are links to a few that are specifically PCB Design related:

• Better PCBs in Eagle (New tutorial)
  
• Getting started with Eagle PCB and schematic capture (Older tutorial)
  
• The basics of laying out a PCB with Eagle
• How to create a custom footprint and part in Eagle PCB

Technical Docs:

 These are links to technical specifications for Gerber and NC Drill formats. Both of these kinds of files are simple text files that you can open in a text editor like Notepad (not Word or Office!). The sites below have more information about the formats - Gerbers are for the layers and NC Drill is (doh) for the drill holes. The specifications are basically standard but only unofficially so and CAD softwares take some liberty with them. However, it is sometimes possible to edit the files exported directly to fix incorrect output.

 Ok - this is very thick, slow, technical stuff and probably only interesting if you enjoy that sort of intellectual abuse. We don't expect people to know the specs but it might be useful in some cases and (for oddballs like me ..) you may actually like reading this kind of material.

• Gerber RS-274X format
• Wikipedia - Gerber
• NC Drill format
• Robot Scrapbook Intoduction to GCodes
• Wikipedia - GCode

Software Resources:

 The links below are to sites for PCB design software. Most offer at least a free version and some are Open Source projects (also free).

• gerbv - a good free Open Source Gerber viewer, Windows and *nix systems
• Eagle - Sparkfun engineers favorite free PCB CAD program
  
• PCB - another good CAD program, free and Open Source
• eGEDA - the GPL Electronic Design suite, free and Open Source
• ViewMate - another free Gerber viewer

Jump to FAQ:

• What is this place?

• What are the PCB rules and limits?

• How much is shipping?

• What do the order statuses mean?

• How long does it take to get my order?

• PCBs are really this cheap?

• What do I get for these prices?

• Can I use any software?

• How do I order my PCB design?

• How can I be sure the gerber files are ok?

• Can I get more than one copy?

• How do I indicate the shape of my board?

• Can I route really exotic shapes?

• How do I use Eagle?

• Why don't you have a phone number?

• Do I need to worry about the security of my design?

• What is the DRC-Bot?

• Ok - so what's a gerber?

• Can I put multiple designs on the same board/layout?