Your first board

In this lesson you’ll lay out a small printed circuit board from start to finish: create the board, place parts on it, connect them with tracks and vias, check the result with a design-rule check, preview it as an image, and export fab-ready Gerbers.

The flow is always the same — create → place → connect → check → preview → export — and once you’ve done it once on a small board, it scales to bigger ones.

Before you start

Make sure you’ve connected an agent. Each step below is a prompt you give that agent.

Step 1 — Create the board

Ask your agent:

Create a new 2-layer board, 40 mm by 30 mm.

This runs create_board, giving you a blank board outline to work on.

Step 2 — Place parts

You place parts as footprints. Use place_footprint for a generic footprint, or place_vendor_footprint when you want a specific manufacturer part.

Place a 0805 resistor footprint near the top-left of the board.

That runs place_footprint.

Place the vendor footprint for an ESP32 module in the center.

That runs place_vendor_footprint. Repeat until all your parts are on the board.

Step 3 — Connect with tracks and vias

Now wire the parts together. A track is a copper trace on one layer; a via is a plated hole that carries a connection between layers.

Add a track connecting the resistor’s pad to the module’s power pin.

That runs add_track.

Add a via to drop that net down to the bottom layer.

That runs add_via. Add tracks and vias until every connection is made.

Want this done for you?

Placing every track by hand is fine for a small board, but you can also let the engine route the connections automatically. That’s covered in Autoroute a board.

Step 4 — Check with a DRC

Before you trust the layout, run a design-rule check to catch spacing violations, overlaps, and unconnected nets.

Run a DRC on the board.

That runs run_drc and returns a report. Fix any violations it flags — usually by nudging a part or rerouting a track — then run it again until it’s clean.

Step 5 — Preview the layout

Render the board to SVG so I can see it.

That runs render_pcb_svg and produces an image of the layout. Look it over: confirm parts are where you expect and tracks go where you intended.

Step 6 — Export Gerbers

Once the DRC is clean and the preview looks right, export the manufacturing files.

Export the Gerbers for fabrication.

That runs export_gerber, producing the Gerber set you send to a fab house.

Next

You laid out, checked, and exported a board. Next you’ll put a design through a physics study: Next → Run a simulation.