BatchPCB HOWTOS
This section has small HOWTOs for things related to BatchPCB

The mini HOWTOs here are to give new (and/or forgetful) users a quick intro to some tasks related to using BatchPCB. If you have suggestions for new topics or improvements (or you wrote your own mini HOWTO), please feel free to contact support@batchpcb.com to contribute.

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How To Sell Your Design
Mar 1, 2010

So you have put your hard work into engineering your design and now you want sell your design.  How do you do this?  Follow these next steps to turn your creativity into money.

1.  Create a Reseller account.  ( To do this start by clicking "Reseller Settings").

2.  Click "Sign Me Up".  You will be prompted with the next screen that asks you to enter the preferred payment method.

3.  Read through the Terms and Conditions and if you wish to proceed select " I Agree".

4.  Verify the information you provided is correct.  If so, you will recieve a confirmation email welcoming you to the reseller community.

5.  You will be asked to review youre settings and will be prompted to fill out your W-9 form.  You can also download the W-9 form  at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf?portlet=3.

6.  Once you have filled out the form, scan it and email it to forms@batchpcb.com

7.  Upon review of the W-9 form you will recieve and email telling you that you are now an active seller in the BatchPCB marketplace.

8.  Upload your designs.  (If unsure how to do this see below).

HOWTO Upload a PCB Design
A short description of how to submit design Gerbers

Ah, so you want to upload new design ... hmm, how do I do that? Hang on, its very easy.

First, we assume that you have already registered as a member - oh, not yet? Ok, either go directly here and create an account for yourself or you can check out this tiny HOWTO to learn the details of creating an account.

Right, so now you have an account and you have logged in (noo, I am not going to make a "logging in" HOWTO..).

Click on the "Upload" link at the top of the website and you should see a page like this:

Image of upload page

As you can see, there is a field for you to fill in a name for the design - this is for your reference and can be any name. After uploading this is what the design will be called in the list in your account; you can also change this later. So, fill in a name (eg. "arc box 1" or "arc_box_r1") and then click on the button to select a file which will prompt you to select a zip file or tarball containing Gerbers.

Ahhh, zip file? Tar ball? Hmm, ok - if you are stuck now you can check out this HOWTO to learn how to create a zip/tar file with your Gerbers. This will be a compressed file (my_design.zip or my_design.tar.gz) that has the Gerber files exported from your CAD/CAM software. The files must be in the root or base of the zip - not in a subfolder! When you create the zip select a folder and zip that, select the individual files and zip them together.

Ok, next step - you have selected a zip file with Gerbers in it, named it and clicked "Upload" and now you should see something this next:

Image of selection page

These images will hopefully show each of the layers in your design - and if you used a normal naming convention they should already be pre-selected to the correct layer. Please see this FAQ for more on what a Gerber file is and what the normal naming convention for extensions is. If you did not use the normal extensions (some CAD software does not ..) the layers may not be matched up; no problem - you can adjust them here.

If the images look a little funny, not to worry: these are only for reference to make it easier for you to select the correct layer for each file, we don't use them for layout or production.

After you have checked and/or selected the files for each layer you need (you can leave them "Unused" for extra files that you don't need), click to continue at the bottom of the page - if the page doesn't change then scroll up to see if you have assigned the same file twice or something like that.

The next page will show you a size estimate for the design - this is the area for which we will charge if you order the design for production:

http://www.batchpcb.com/local/assets/images/howto_upload3.png

If you find an error here (eg. size is incorrect) you can contact support to resolve it. Note: it is important that you have only the design data in the Gerbers and not extra text or other things outside of the design outline. If you have extra things outside of the design the sizing code may assume that it is part of the design and the estimate will include the area used. You can check to see what the design looks like in a viewer like gerbv or ViewMate - if you see text outside of the outline of the design this may cause sizing errors.

If everything looks ok now you can click "Continue" - or "Cancel" to abort the upload. Next the DRC Bot will fetch your design and have the DRC code check for basic bloopers - Note that this does not guarantee that the board will work, but it will make sure that your traces/spaces are not too small to manufacture. The Bot will send you an email with the results of whether the design passed or failed - the email will also have images for reference and if there were problems the images will highlight the areas in pink or orange (top.png and bottom.png). : pink means the trace is too small orange means the space was too small. You can also check the status in your account under "PCB Designs".

Usually you receive an email in a few minutes - if it is a very large or very complex design it can take as long as an hour for the DRC to work through it. Occasionally it fails, in this case you can contact support and we will look into it. And, the DRC is ok but not brilliant - it gets confused by some output; if you really think that the design is ok please do contact us, we can have a quick check and pass it manually if need be.

That's it! Your new design has been uploaded and checked.

If the design has passed you can either follow the link sent by the Bot to add it to your cart or you can do so directly from your account. You can order as many copies as you like as many times as you like. From "PCB Designs" in your account you can also delete old designs, rename them and set whether the general public can view the designs or not. There is also a link created on the bottom of the design view page (click "View" in the list of designs) that you can send to a friend to allow them to view or order the design - just copy the link into a browser and it will go to the page for that design. Note that the link is only created after you add the design to your shopping cart at least once (you do not need to complete the order). You can also change the name, model, permissions, etc. of the design on the design view page.

HOWTO Zip or Tar Gerbers for Upload
A brief lesson in zip and tar ..

Ok, you made a design and now you want to upload the Gerbers. Since Eagle is free and popular we will use this as the example CAD.

  • Step 1 - Export the design
  1. Click on the CAM item in the menu
  2. Click "Open" -> "Job" and select the SFE cam file (or your own)
  3. Click "Process Job" - this will create the gerbers in the folder that the board (*.brd) is in for that design.
  • Step 2 - Create a zip/tar file
  1. Zip: In Explorer navigate to the folder that has the exported files. In Linux use Konqueror.
  2. Select all of the exported files - individually, do not select the folder they are in. If there are extras or you don't know which ones to select just select all of them - the upload process will discard unused files.
  3. In Windows, Right click and choose "Send To" -> "Compressed (Zipped) Folder .." - in Linux if you have zip installed (apt-get install zip) you can also right click and select "Compress" -> "Compress As" -> "Zip Archive" (or "Gzipped Tar Arcive" - either will work).

  4. Tar.gz for *nix users: cd to the directory containing the export and do "tar -czf my_new_design_name.tar.gz *.*"

Et voila! You have a compressed file that you can select for upload on the website. Note: be careful to select the individual files in all cases - do not try to select the folder and zip/tar that up as the files must be in the root of the archive (otherwise the upload page will complain bitterly and fail). Note also that the drill file must be exported to NC Drill format.

You can be more efficient and be sure to select only the Gerber/Drill files that you need, but the steps above will get the basic job done, then proceed to the upload to have the design checked.