When, after a lot of time and effort, you have finally completed the design of your new printed circuit board (PCB), it is time to get it manufactured. Generating the production data and sending it to a manufacturer is often a source of stress: Is the data good? Can the manufacturer handle it?

To remove at least a part of this stress, PCB manufacturer Eurocircuits offers a set of online tools that show the user exactly what will be manufactured and how, and that allow the user to make some last-minute changes. The use of these tools is free and does not require placing any orders.

In previous articles we discussed (in alphabetical order) the Panel Editor, PCB Checker, PCB Configurator, PCB Solver, PCB Visualizer, this time we will have a look at the Marking Editor.

What is marking?

If you have ever ordered a PCB somewhere you will probably have noticed some text on the manufactured boards that was not present in your original design. PCB manufacturers have a habit of putting codes and sometimes even logos on boards, and these are marks.

 
eurocircuits order code
The order code in the red rectangle is added by Eurocircuits.

Other types of marks are QR codes, UL marks, other logos and what not. Actually, everything printed on the top & bottom component print sides of the board can be considered a mark.

The Marking Editor lets you control these marks. It does not allow you to modify your own component print, you should do that in your PCB design tool, but it lets you add, edit and move other marks.