We process PCB design packages early in the workflow, automatically.
Today, cost and manufacturability surface late: after layout freeze, after the RFQ goes out, after days of vendor transcription. Boardera reads the package the moment it exists (Gerbers, BOM, drill, specs) so everyone who touches the board checks the design and its cost while it is still cheap to change. The maps below show where that lands in three workflows.
Stage coverage by platform
Fig. 01 · Quote Workflow
Six quoting platforms compared stage-for-stage, from raw design files to purchase order.
Stage coverage across six quoting platforms, ordered by workflow position. Boardera covers 8 of 10 stages and is the only entrant upstream of assembly labor; procurement stages (vendor quotes, purchasing) remain the incumbents’ ground.
PCB fabrication quoting
Fig. 02 · Fab Quote Workflow
The CAM incumbents read the package, run DFM, and prep the panel. None of them price it. Boardera leaves panelization with the fabricator’s CAM flow and carries the same files through to a costed quote.
Skipped by design: it stays in the CAM flow
Fabrication-side quoting against the CAM incumbents. Ucamco, Frontline and Valor stop at the panel; Boardera stops before it: panelization stays in the fabricator’s CAM flow, while extraction, DFM, cost and quote run in one pass.
The OEM designer’s toolchain
Fig. 03 · OEM Design Workflow
What a designer stitches together today: the EDA tool checks the design, then the fab and EMS vendors return prices weeks later. Boardera covers the span while the design is still in flight.
Vendor-side, opaque to the designer
The route to a priced design today runs through three parties: the EDA tool ends at DFx, the fab vendor’s quote loop is opaque between hand-off and returned price, and the EMS vendor starts at the BOM. Fab costs and assembly labor are priced by no tool the designer holds.