PCBDoc: Fully Editable Native Board Layouts, Direct From Reverse Engineering
Reverse engineering recovers what’s lost. Now it delivers what’s next.
For over 30 years, ScanCAD International’s Service Bureau has been the partner engineers turn to when critical PCB documentation no longer exists. Whether it’s a discontinued assembly, a legacy design locked in an obsolete format, or a board whose original manufacturer is long gone — our team has recovered thousands of designs and delivered production-ready results.
Our reverse engineering process produces comprehensive deliverables that engineers rely on every day: Gerber files, Bill of Materials, pick-and-place data, netlists, and schematics in native ECAD formats. These outputs have powered successful board reproduction, sustainment, and modernization programs across defense, aerospace, medical, and commercial industries. Now, we’ve expanded that deliverable set with something our customers have been asking for.
Introducing Native Board Layout Output
ScanCAD’s Service Bureau now delivers complete board layout files in native ECAD formats — Cadence Allegro, Altium Designer (.PcbDoc), and others — directly from our reverse engineering process. This is a fully editable engineering file that brings together:
- The physical board — copper geometry across all layers and drill data
- Every component — placed, identified, and linked to the Bill of Materials
- The complete netlist — verified against the original board to ensure electrical accuracy
- Design rules — restored based on our translation experience, including original trace widths and spacing, to support a smooth workflow in your design tool
- Open the file in your ECAD tool and you’re looking at the board as it was built — ready to engineer against immediately
What this Enables: From Reverse Engineering to Forward Engineering
Our existing deliverables give engineers the critical data they need to understand a board. The native board layout takes that a step further — it puts a unified, editable design file directly into your engineering workflow. From the moment you receive it, you can:
- Reproduce the board exactly — Generate manufacturing outputs directly from the native file for a drop-in replacement, no reconstruction required
- Modify and extend the design — Add nets, swap components, update routing, or branch into an entirely new revision with full design context intact
- Build a new layout from the ground up — Start from the recovered schematic and netlist with confidence that the original electrical intent is preserved
- Support simulation and analysis — The native layout with its component placement and copper geometry provides a significant head start when setting up workflows like FEA or thermal modeling
Whether you’re sustaining a legacy system, modernizing an aging design, or recovering a board that’s been out of production for decades — this output moves you from reverse engineering to forward engineering faster.
Already Have Data? We Can Work with That.
This is a Service Bureau offering — and it’s available to anyone, including our ScanCAD Systems customers.
If you’ve already built-up schematics, netlists, or Bill of Materials data from previous reverse engineering work, that’s a great starting point. Our team can take the datasets you already have and produce a matched, native-format board layout — fully linked, verified, and ready to use in your ECAD environment. No new system purchase required. Just send us what you have, and we’ll handle the rest.
Built on a Proven Process: The Same Rigor, Trusted for Three Decades
Every native layout we deliver is backed by the same rigorous process our customers have trusted for 30+ years:
01
High-resolution layer scanning — Every copper layer is captured at resolutions that preserve trace geometry, pad shapes, and spacing.
02
Netlist verification — Electrical connectivity is verified against the physical board to confirm every net is accounted for.
03
Design rule restoration — Rules including trace widths and key spacing parameters are restored based on our extensive translation experience, making your ECAD workflow smoother from the start.
04
Component-to-layout linking — Every component in the Bill of Materials is placed with its footprint, orientation, and net assignment.
The result is a file that doesn’t just look like the original board — it behaves like the original board inside your design environment
Let’s Talk About Your Project
Whether you need a full reverse engineering engagement with native layout output, or you’re looking to enhance an existing schematic library with editable board files — the ScanCAD Service Bureau is ready to help.
Let’s get started. We’d love to hear from you at [email protected].