Frequently Asked Questions

Both. Designers and manufacturers around the world have incorporated KwickFit into their PCB panelization processes.

PCB designers use KwickFit proactively to ensure their PCB and PCB array designs utilize the manufacturing panel efficiently to obtain the lowest PCB price.

PCB manufacturers use KwickFit to optimize PCB panel layouts, thereby improving their margins and/or passing the savings on to their customers.

It's the easiest way to ensure the lowest possible PCB part price. Optimized panels reduce waste and are more efficient to manufacture.

For example, let's say you are placing an order for 10,000 parts and the current panel layout gets 20 parts per panel. The manufacturer will need to make 500 panels (not including overage) to meet the order. If you're a designer and can make adjustments to your design that increase the part quantity to 22 parts per panel, you'll achieve a 9% improvement. Increasing to 24 parts per panel brings a 17% improvement, and getting 26 parts per panel yields a 23% improvement. KwickFit makes achieving these cost saving improvements easy.

Of course there are other factors that impact PCB price, so the savings may not exactly correlate to the panel layout improvement. Bottom line, the more parts you can fit on a panel, the lower the PCB price.

KwickFit works with rectangular and round shapes only, which covers most scenarios. In cases where a complex shape can be nested, you can manually calculate the outer bounding rectangle of the nested pair and use that as the part size in KwickFit. Each part in the KwickFit layout is equal two parts.

KwickFit cannot place different-sized parts on the same panel.

Yes. KwickFit can optimize PCB panelization to get the best part price. See Why is PCB Panelization so critical for more information.

Start with the understanding that KwickFit is not a CAD or CAM tool. It's a "what-if" calculator that allows you to quickly calculate array and panel layouts to see how they affect part-per-panel yield. KwickFIt makes it easy to adjust the numbers and see how they impact the result. When viewed this way, you'll find that KwickFit is a very valuable tool and quickly pays for itself.

Two of the most powerful features in KwickFit are the Auto Matrix Array Calculator, which finds the best array design for each panel size, and the Analyze Part Size to Increase Yield feature, which finds the threshold at which a reduced part size increases the parts-per-panel yield.

If you are a PCB designer get the list of your manufacturer's panel sizes, part spacing on the panel, and minimum panel borders. Do this for each of your preferred manufacturers. Then create a panel set or multiple panel sets with these panel sizes. Early in the design process, check how your PCB will be panelized. If your part will be manufactured in an array, use the Auto Matrix Array Calculator to find the best array design. Then use the analyze the part size to increase the yield feature to see if a slightly smaller part will produce a higher part-per-panel yield. Often, significant savings are just a millimeter away.

Simply sign up for the 14-day free trial. You'll have full access to all of KwickFit's features free for 14 days. No credit card is required. We're confident you'll find KwickFit will pay for itself.

KwickFit can calculate an optimized fit on many different panel sizes in a single operation. A panel set is a collection of different panel sizes. When you run a layout calculation, you'll select a panel set or, if you prefer, a single panel size. If you select a panel set, KwickFit will calculate an optimized layout for each panel size in the selected panel set.

You can create any number of panel sets and panel sizes.

KwickFit is not a CAD or CAM tool. It's a special-purpose calculator that allows you to quickly calculate PCB panelization results by entering just a few dimensions. Importing CAD or CAM files would add complexity to the process and is not aligned with the simplicity of KwickFit's user experience.

Yes. Each KwickFit account can accommodate any number of users so everyone on your team can share the same configuration which includes panel sets, panel sizes, and layout configuration.

We also offer a deep discount for additional users. See the pricing page for details.

In 2024, KwickFit celebrated its 30th anniversary. KwickFIt started as a desktop application in 1994 and moved to the cloud in 2015.