Open PcbDoc files in your browser
The circuit boards Altium Designer saves, passed between engineers, factories and open hardware projects. Open one right here, both sides as it's made, with no CAD app. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your board opens as it's made, from the top and from below, with its polygons as Altium last poured them, a schematic sheet by sheet in Altium's colors, and a library a footprint or symbol at a time.
- Every layer • Hide one or show one alone
- A board's top and, mirrored beside it, its bottom
- Search its text • Designators, values and net labels
- Export • PNG, SVG, PDF and the bill of materials
About PcbDoc
Altium began as Protel in Tasmania in 1985 and has made circuit board software ever since. With Protel DXP in 2002 each board became a .PcbDoc of its own, and Altium Designer still saves them, beside the schematics and the project of the design.
A PcbDoc is a Compound File, like Office's older documents, with a stream for each kind of object: the board's shape and layer stack, the components with their footprints, the pads, vias, tracks, arcs and texts, the copper its polygons were last poured with, and the nets that join them. Its schematics live beside it as .SchDoc files, and its project as a .PrjPcb.
Filepeek reads it in your browser and draws the board as it's made, from the top and, mirrored beside it, from below: green mask, gold copper where the mask is open, white silkscreen and the holes. Each layer can be hidden or shown alone, inner copper and mechanical layers too, Search finds a part by its designator, Measure gives distances in millimeters, and Export saves PNG, SVG, PDF or the bill of materials as CSV.
Altium board
.pcbdoc
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- Altium, which began as Protel
- Released
- 2002
Inside the file
- Holds
- Components, pads, vias, tracks and polygons
- Layers
- Copper, mask, silkscreen, paste and mechanical
- Polygons
- Saved with the copper they last poured
- File
- A Compound File, a stream per kind of object
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens Altium boards in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, as Altium Designer saves them by default. On their own, browsers download them, and Altium Designer runs only on Windows.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open PcbDoc
- WindowsAltium Designer, paid • KiCad imports it, free
- MacKiCad imports it, free
- iPhone and iPadNo app built in opens it
- AndroidNo app built in opens it
Questions
How do I open a .PcbDoc file without Altium?
Drop it on this page or press Peek a PcbDoc. The board opens from both sides as it's made, with nothing to install. To change it without Altium, KiCad, which is free, imports it.
Why is a polygon empty, or out of date?
Altium saves each polygon with the copper it last poured, and that is what shows. A polygon shelved or never poured shows none, and one poured before its tracks moved shows them as they were. Repour every polygon in Altium, then save.
Why does my PcbDoc open as text?
Altium can save a board as ASCII, the same objects as lines of text, and that opens here as text. Saved again as a binary PcbDoc, Altium's default, it opens as a board.
Can I see the schematic too?
Yes. Open its .SchDoc, or drop the project's folder: the board opens first, with its sheets and libraries a click away in the file list.
Can I check my board before ordering it?
The factory builds it from the Gerbers Altium makes, so check those too. Here you can see both sides, show each layer alone and Measure between two points in millimeters, and Show details gives the board's size, its copper layers and its holes.