EasyEDA makes ordering almost frictionless: design in the browser, export a ZIP of fabrication files, upload it to a board house — often JLCPCB, whose ordering flow EasyEDA is built to feed. The friction is the point of this guide. A one-click path from design to factory means the exported files can travel from the export button to a production queue without human eyes ever seeing them as files. Gerbv gives you that look for free: it is an open-source viewer for Gerber RS-274X files, Excellon drill files and CSV pick-and-place data, and ten minutes with it confirms that the ZIP you are about to upload contains the board you designed. The workflow below is deliberately destination-independent — check the set once, properly, and it is fit to upload anywhere. If Gerbv is new to you, how to open and view Gerber files covers the basics, and the viewer is on the download page.
Export the ZIP from EasyEDA — then download it to your own machine
EasyEDA’s fabrication export produces a single ZIP archive containing the Gerber layers and the drill data for the board, named and organised the way its ordering pipeline expects. Generate the export from the finished, saved board — not from a tab you have been editing since — and download the ZIP to a local folder you control, even if you fully intend to order through the integrated flow. That download is the whole trick: it converts an invisible intermediate step into an artefact you can inspect, archive with the project, and re-upload later or elsewhere. Note the export’s filename and date, and if you export again after a fix, keep the versions in separate folders. Most wrong-board stories are not export errors at all; they are the previous revision’s ZIP, uploaded with complete confidence.
Extract the ZIP and take inventory
Extract the archive into its own folder and look at what is actually inside before opening anything. A healthy set contains one file per artwork layer — copper for each side (and any inner layers), solder mask, silkscreen, solder paste where relevant, and a board outline — plus the drill file. Count the files against the board you designed: a two-layer board with silkscreen on top only should not suddenly have a bottom silkscreen story to tell, and a four-layer board missing its inner copper files is an export to regenerate, not to upload. Keep the extracted folder exactly as extracted. The filenames EasyEDA assigns carry the layer identities, and renaming or tidying them helps nobody — least of all the board house’s importer, if you later upload the extracted files instead of the ZIP.
Inspect each layer in Gerbv
Open the folder in Gerbv, stacking the layers as in loading and aligning Gerber layers: copper first, then mask, silkscreen and paste, with the outline and drill file where they can be toggled over the rest. Then do the layer-by-layer pass that a browser-based design view never gave you. Copper alone: do the pours, traces and pads look like the board, with nothing floating outside the outline? Mask over copper: are the pads you need exposed actually opened, and are vias treated the way you intended? Silkscreen alone, then over the pads: is every designator present, legible and clear of exposed pads, and does any text run off the board edge? Paste over top copper, if the board will be assembled: do the openings match the surface-mount pads? Toggle slowly and look at edges and corners, where export and design most often part company. Gerbv also views the pick-and-place data as a CSV layer if you exported it — component positions should sit inside the outline, on the footprints the silkscreen describes.
Drills, dimensions and the outline
Stack the drill file over the copper using viewing Excellon drill files: every hole centred in its pad, mounting holes where the mechanical design puts them, and the reported drill sizes matching the components you chose — no unexpected tool, no near-duplicate pair. Then measure, following measuring distances in Gerbv: overall outline width and height, one connector pitch, the tightest clearance you routed. The outline deserves its own moment: displayed alone, it should be one closed shape of the size you designed. A surprising share of upload problems trace back to the outline being absent, open, or drawn on a layer the board house does not treat as the outline — all three are obvious in the viewer and ambiguous everywhere else. None of this requires Gerbv to run design-rule checks (it does not); it requires you to look at the files the factory will look at.
Upload the set you checked — and only that set
Close the loop with file discipline. Upload the ZIP (or the extracted set) that you just inspected — not a sibling export from an earlier edit. If any check failed, fix the design or the export choice in EasyEDA, export a fresh ZIP into a fresh folder, and inspect the new set; never mix files between exports. Keep the checked ZIP with the project as the release record: when the boards arrive, it is the evidence of what was actually ordered. From here, the destination-specific guides take over — the full PCB pre-order checklist as the final gate, and, if JLCPCB is the destination, checking your files before uploading to JLCPCB.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to check EasyEDA exports if I order through the built-in flow?
Yes — the integrated flow is exactly why checking matters. The export travels from the design to the factory without being seen as files. Downloading the ZIP and inspecting it in Gerbv is the one step where a wrong layer, a stale revision or a missing outline can still be caught for free.
What should the EasyEDA ZIP contain?
One Gerber file per artwork layer — copper, solder mask, silkscreen, solder paste where relevant and the board outline — plus the Excellon drill file. Extract it and count the files against your board’s layer structure before viewing.
I exported twice. Which ZIP do I upload?
The one you inspected, from the folder you inspected it in. Keep each export in its own dated folder, and never mix files between exports — a mixed set is the most common cause of a layer disagreeing with the rest.