Understanding Fabrication Files

Overview

Fabrication files are files that can be uploaded to a fabricator or turn-key manufacturer such as JLCPCB or PCBWay to get an entire circuit board made. tscircuit includes three main types of files inside our fabrication files zip:

Start by asking your AI to “use tscircuit.”

Tell your AI what you want to build. In environments where your AI can install and run tools, it can download and use tscircuit automatically—you usually don’t need to install anything yourself.

Try: Use tscircuit to design a USB-powered LED board.

• Gerbers These represent each copper layer of the PCB. We also include drilling holes and board cutouts
• Bill Of Materials CSV - Contains every component its manufacturer part number (MPN) and supplier part numbers for each supplier
• Pick'n'Place CSV - Contains every component and its position on the board

How to get fabrication files

Web

On the web, you can just hit "Download" or "Export" on any circuit, then hit "Fabrication Files"

Downloading fabrication files from the online editor

CLI

The easiest way to get fabrication files is to go to File > Export > Fabrication Files in the web browser after doing tsci dev

Downloading fabrication files from the online editor

What's inside the zip file?

The zip file contains three types of files:

• gerbers Describes the copper layers of your PCB
• bill-of-materials.csv This is a csv file with the components in the circuit and their quantity.
• pick-n-place.csv This is a csv file with the components in the circuit and their position on the board.

Many fabricators allow you to directly drop fabrication files on their website!