4PCB
Advanced Circuits, Inc. (ACI)

As experts in the manufacture and assembly of printed circuit boards, we work to make our blog a helpful resource on PCB topics and the industries that we work with, including automotive, consumer electronics, aerospace and many more. Here you'll find insights into PCB design, tech trends, assembly issues, and trending topics in the general news media as they relate to printed circuit board technology.

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Circuit Board Design Tools from Advanced Circuits

Advanced Circuits is North America’s industry leader for innovation, quality, and service in printed circuit board manufacturing and quickturn PCB assembly.  On our website, 4pcb.com, you can find many resources to help you during your circuit board design process.  Our free PCB design tools include PCB Artist for PCB layout and FreeDFM for finding manufacturability issues in your design.

Quick Links:  PCB Artist Layout Software | FreeDFM File Check | Trace Width Calculator

Circuit Board Design with PCB Artist Software

Advanced Circuits’ professional-grade circuit board design software is be the best free layout software available with a library of over 500k parts and free live support.  You may download the full version of the latest 4.0 release for free without a subscription of any kind or limiting pay-walls that restrict your circuit board design.

circuit board design software

Our circuit board design software is easy to learn and it is the most popular PCB design software on CNET’s Download.com with 270,000 downloads.

With PCB Artist, you can create up to 28 layer boards using features like Controlled Autorouter, Multipage Schematic, Native Eagle Import, Parts Creation wizard and much more.  When you set up your circuit board design on PCB Artist, the software will provide a quote instantly according to your design specifications.  When you are ready to order, simply follow the prompts on the screen to place your order with Advanced Circuits directly with PCB Artist.

Checking Your Circuit Board Design with FreeDFM

We created FreeDFM to save customers time and help them avoid production holds due to manufacturability issues in their circuit board design.  FreeDFM is our online tool where you can upload a .zip folder that contains your circuit board design files in Gerber format.  Once you have uploaded your file and entered the parameters of your PCB, our system will check for possible manufacturability issues that may be a “show stopper” when you place your order.  These potential “show stoppers” can be any of the flowing:

  • Missing Drill Hits
  • Double Drill Hits
  • Spacing Violations
  • Trace Width Violations
  • Annular Ring Violations
  • Inner Clearance (drill to feature) Violations
  • Missing/Undersized Clearances
  • and others…

circuit board design free dfm

FreeDFM performs these checks and many more within minutes and sends you an email with a graphical report of all problem areas found.  Finding these trouble areas in your circuit board design is a tremendous help because it saves time by avoiding production holds after your order is placed.  Every time you receive a FreeDFM report in your inbox, you also receive with it a discount code for up to $100 off your next circuit board order with Advanced Circuits.

Other Circuit Board Design Resources from Advanced Circuits

Advanced Circuits’ website (4PCB.com) is full of resources for circuit board design, manufacturing, and assembly.  Below is a short list of resources you may find helpful:

 

 

 

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