Cherry Blossom for students
You need a board for a project, a club or a capstone, and the deadline is closer than your ECAD skills. Cherry Blossom drafts the board from a description. Here is what that does for you, and what it does not.
For my capstone I need a small robot board: an ATmega328P, a DRV8833 driver for two DC motors, headers for two HC-SR04 ultrasonic sensors, and a 2-cell battery input with a 5 V regulator.
It can be, for a student who needs a working board for a project and wants to see how a finished design fits together. You describe the board, an AI agent designs it, and you get a schematic, a layout and fab files. There is no free tier right now, because the Free plan is paused, and there is no student or education discount. Plans start at $20 a month.
It is a poor fit if your course is teaching you to lay out a board by hand, or requires a specific tool such as KiCad or Altium. The viewers are read-only, so you do not practise placement and routing here. KiCad is free and is the better tool to learn on.
Check your course's rules on AI tools before you use it for graded work.
Where it fits
- Students who need a working board for a project or capstone.
- Anyone who wants to see how a finished design fits together.
- Students who learn by reading the schematic and the code behind it.
- Projects that need files a lab or fab house will accept.
Where it doesn’t
- Courses that teach you to lay out a board by hand.
- Courses that require a specific tool such as KiCad or Altium.
- Anyone who needs a free tool or a student discount.
- Lab work where you need to simulate the circuit.
How it works
Describe the board
Say what it does, the parts your kit or lab already has, and the board size. A photo of a hand sketch works too.
Let it build
An AI agent writes the board as tscircuit code and builds it. You can close the tab and come back.
Study and ask
Read the schematic, layout, 3D view and BOM. Ask the agent to explain a choice, or to swap a part or move a connector.
Export or order
Download Gerbers, a CSV BOM or an editable KiCad project, or send the board to PCBWay at PCBWay's own quote.
What do students need from a PCB tool?
A board that works in time for the demo or the deadline.
A low cost, or no cost, because it comes out of a student budget.
A way to learn what a real design looks like: symbols, footprints, nets, layout.
Files a lab or a fab house will accept.
Cherry Blossom does well on the first and the last, partly on the third, and not on the second.
When should a student use something else?
A project board by a deadline
What Cherry Blossom doesDrafts schematic, layout, BOM and fab files from a description
Where to look insteadCovered here
A free tool
What Cherry Blossom doesNo free tier and no student discount
Where to look insteadLearning to place and route by hand
What Cherry Blossom doesRead-only viewers; changes go through the agent
Where to look insteadSimulating a circuit for a lab
What Cherry Blossom doesNo simulation
Where to look insteadCircuit simulation software
Working in a team on one board
What Cherry Blossom doesNo real-time multi-user editing
Where to look insteadPCB design software for teams
| What you need | What Cherry Blossom does | Where to look instead |
|---|---|---|
| A project board by a deadline | Drafts schematic, layout, BOM and fab files from a description | Covered here |
| A free tool | No free tier and no student discount | Free PCB design software |
| Learning to place and route by hand | Read-only viewers; changes go through the agent | KiCad |
| Simulating a circuit for a lab | No simulation | Circuit simulation software |
| Working in a team on one board | No real-time multi-user editing | PCB design software for teams |
For the full field, see the best PCB design software for students.
What does Cherry Blossom cost a student?
The Free plan is paused right now, so there is no free tier, and there is no student or education discount. Pro is $20 a month with 4M AI credits and 600 AI actions a day. Ultra is $140 a month with 32M credits and the frontier models. Usage past the allowance is $5 per 1M credits, only if you turn it on. The AI is included, with no API key and no per-seat licence.
Ordering boards is a separate cost, paid to PCBWay at their own quote. Cherry Blossom takes no payment for boards.
The honest limits. Cherry Blossom is an early beta. You change a board by asking the agent, not by dragging traces yourself, so fine manual layout happens after a KiCad export. It is not a circuit simulator, it has no real-time multi-user editing, and it is not built for high-speed or RF sign-off.
Questions
Cherry Blossom is a good PCB design tool for students who need a working board for a project and want to see how a complete design fits together. You describe the board in plain English, an AI agent writes it as tscircuit code and builds it, and you get a schematic, PCB layout, 3D view, BOM and fab-ready Gerbers. It is a poor tool for learning to lay out a board by hand, because the viewers are read-only and you change the board by asking the agent. There is no free tier right now, because the Free plan is paused, and there is no student or education discount. Plans start at $20 a month. If cost matters most, or your course teaches manual layout, KiCad is free and a better place to learn. You can export any Cherry Blossom board as an editable KiCad project, so the two can be used together.
There is no free tier right now, because the Free plan is paused, and there is no student or education discount. Plans start at $20 a month.
Not directly. It designs the board for you, so you do not practise placement and routing. You can learn from reading the schematic, the layout and the tscircuit code it writes, and from asking the agent to explain a choice.
That depends on your course's rules on AI tools, so check with your instructor first. If the assignment requires a specific tool, export the KiCad project or use that tool.
Describe your board. See what comes back.
Schematic, layout and a verification gate, in the browser. Exports to Gerbers and KiCad.
