Cost vs complexity trade-off in PCB Design - Dashboard Approaches Compared

Dashboard Mode - Cost vs complexity trade-off

Dashboard Goal

Understand how the cost of PCB designs changes as their complexity increases to help make better design decisions.

Sample Data

Design ID	Complexity Score	Cost (USD)	Layers	Components Count
D001	3	1200	2	50
D002	5	2500	4	120
D003	7	4000	6	200
D004	4	1800	3	80
D005	6	3200	5	150
D006	8	4500	8	250

Dashboard Components

• KPI Card: Average Cost
  Formula: Average of Cost (USD) = (1200+2500+4000+1800+3200+4500)/6 = 2866.67 USD
• KPI Card: Average Complexity
  Formula: Average of Complexity Score = (3+5+7+4+6+8)/6 = 5.5
• Scatter Plot: Cost vs Complexity
  X-axis: Complexity Score
  Y-axis: Cost (USD)
  Points: Each Design ID plotted by its complexity and cost
• Bar Chart: Layers per Design
  X-axis: Design ID
  Y-axis: Layers
  Shows how many layers each design has
• Table: Detailed Design Data
  Shows all columns from sample data for reference

Dashboard Layout

+----------------------+-----------------------+
| Average Cost (KPI)   | Average Complexity (KPI)|
+----------------------+-----------------------+
|                                              |
|           Scatter Plot: Cost vs Complexity   |
|                                              |
+----------------------+-----------------------+
| Bar Chart: Layers per Design                  |
+----------------------------------------------+
| Table: Detailed Design Data                   |
+----------------------------------------------+
    

Interactivity

Filter by Complexity Score range: When the user selects a complexity range, all components update to show only designs within that range.

Filter by Layers: Selecting specific layer counts filters the scatter plot, bar chart, and table to those designs.

Hovering over points in the scatter plot highlights the corresponding row in the table and bar in the bar chart.

Self Check

If you add a filter to show only designs with Complexity Score greater than or equal to 6, which components update and what changes occur?

• Average Cost KPI updates to average cost of designs D003, D005, D006 = (4000+3200+4500)/3 = 3900 USD
• Average Complexity KPI updates to average complexity of these designs = (7+6+8)/3 = 7
• Scatter plot shows only points for D003, D005, D006
• Bar chart shows layers for D003, D005, D006 only
• Table filters to show only rows for D003, D005, D006

Key Result

Dashboard showing how PCB design cost increases with complexity, layers, and components count.