PCB123 Reviews

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There are 3 reviews with an average rating of 3.  

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PCB123
Average rating:  
 3 reviews
 by Doug
Great Process, Nagging Bugs

It gets a 4 for capability. A 5 if all features worked as intended. Have used it for 10 years or more. Seems annoying to have to specify EVERY part with a real Digikey component, before starting anything, but I got used to it, and in the end the final design comes together quickly with fewer errors. Schematic and layout are concurrent. Each part dropped on schematic appears on the layout. No need to "import" schematic design. Still need to place and route. There is auto place and auto route, but I usually go manually. Very easy and efficient generation of both schematic and layout. The real superiority of PCB123 is the incredibly fast process of ordering a board. Normally, one needs gerbers, which need checking. Then one sends them for quotes, gets the quotes, places an order, arranges separately for assembly, assembles a BOM and kit, part by part, yada, yada. With PCB123, the cost of the fab for all quantities and turn times is displayed from the start of design, and changes with board changes. When the design is done, click the order button, and with a few more clicks, boards are on their way. No need to look at a gerber file at all. But they'll send them to you if you wish. Click another button, and a BOM is populated with all parts, including quoted prices from Digikey. Push another button, a browser window pops up at Digikey with your whole BOM preloaded. A credit card entry and both fabs and parts are on their way. They also have a related assembly service which I haven't tried but intend to. I find that this process short circuits (no pun intended) most normal engineering services processes which can take months, but take a couple weeks or less instead, with 10% the effort and grief. I own my own consulting firm and this IS my engineering services process. So, all is perfect, except it just doesn't work as planned. Frustrating bugs in the layout that one needs to create workarounds for constantly. Library support is poor. Need to assume a new footprint is needed. But they're easy to make. The BOM fills out, but they don't keep up with Digikey changes, so half the price quotes are unfilled. And I wonder if they really want to perfect this tool or if they're on the brink of giving up on it. I hope not. The tool is free and easy, the process the best possible anywhere, and board prices competitive. Altium by comparison is a horrible nightmare that is as difficult to use as possible, costs a fortune, and requires ten times the time to get a design done.

 by Ron Green
beware

Was a long time exclusive user of PCB123/ Sunstone, fast, easy to use, reasonably priced, and quality good up till recently.

Boards arrived as usual, however actual plated holes were 5 -10+,mil too small. Was given the runaround for 2months , blamed all other dept for delay of return credit for board . No honor it appears. They investigated , design file and actual boards were different

Will go somewhere else for boards from now on

Note agree with other user , double check preloaded footprints carefully

 by Bob D'Aoust
PCB123

I've used PCB123 for two boards in the last year. The manual's size is a bit daunting but once I dug in it wasn't as bad as I thought. If you read it does provide some very useful guidance on how to best approach the schematic and layout using the tool. The only issue I had was that the pre-loaded parts libraries had a number of bad footprints and judging from the used comments on the support site, Sunstone didn't seem to ever correct. You really have to check every pre-loaded footprint before you use it. Other than that, I liked the way the tool handled and will be using it for future work.