Community is live: real PCB designs you can open and remix
Today we're opening Community to everyone on siliXon.
What is siliXon Community?
siliXon Community is a feed of real PCB designs made with siliXon, the AI PCB design tool that turns a plain-English description into a board you can manufacture. Every board on it passed all five of our manufacturing checks before it was shared. You can open any board, look inside it, and remix it into a board of your own.
Which boards go on Community?
Only boards that pass a full manufacturing check: parts and placement, connections and routing, fabrication rules and files, electrical continuity, and a siliXcope datasheet review. A board with a blocking issue, an unverified part or a waived check stays in your projects until it's fixed.
When your board passes, siliXon tells you it's on Community, credited to your username. It's ready to manufacture too: download the ZIP from Board Summary and order it.
What can you see inside a Community board?
Its top and bottom as made, its copper on its own, a 3D view and the schematic. Hover any part for its value, footprint and nets, or read the parts list for each side.
How do you remix a board?
Open the board and press Remix this version. siliXon copies the version you're looking at into a new project of yours and attaches it to Rocky, who asks what you want to change. The copy keeps the original's licence and credits its maker.
You can remix any board on Community, and any of its earlier versions. The remix is your own board: change it, check it and manufacture it like any board you design.
How do people build on each other's boards?
By remixing, improving and sharing again. Every Community board keeps a History of each version that passed its checks, oldest first. A remix's History starts with the board and version it came from, and who made it, so the credit follows the design from board to board.
Change your remix and get it through the checks, and it goes on Community as a board of its own. Then someone else can remix your version, and their History names yours. Keep improving your own board too: each version that passes joins its History, and anyone can open it and remix from it.
A board's link opens its latest version, and each version has a link of its own to share.
How do you share your own board?
Design it with siliXon and get it through the checks. When a public board passes every check, it goes on Community, credited to your username. Boards can be public or private, and a private board stays in your projects.
Public boards are shared under the CERN-OHL-P-2.0 open hardware licence, with credit to you. Your chat with Rocky isn't part of it.
Frequently asked questions
Is siliXon Community free?
Yes. You can browse Community and remix boards on a Free account.
Do I need an account to see Community boards?
Yes. Community is for signed-in makers, so sign in at app.silixon.io to open it.
What licence do Community boards use?
CERN-OHL-P-2.0, a permissive open hardware licence from CERN. Anyone may copy and change a design, make boards from it and share them, as long as they keep its notices and say what they changed. A remix on siliXon keeps the licence and its maker's credit for you.
Can I remix a remix?
Yes. A remix that passes its checks goes on Community like any board, so others can remix it too. Its History credits the board it came from.
Can I start from an earlier version of a board?
Yes. Open the board's History, select the version, and press Remix this version.
Can I manufacture a board I remixed?
Yes. A remix is your own board, so it's built, checked and manufactured like any board you design.
Try it
Community is open at app.silixon.io. Sign in, open Community in the sidebar, and remix the first board that catches your eye. If it passes its checks, it's on Community too.
Happy designing!