Viewer · boardview
A boardview viewer the agent drives with you.
Fourteen boardview formats parsed natively, in the browser, no conversion step. Refdes search, net highlighting, top/bottom flip, and a diagnostic agent that zooms, highlights and annotates the board while it walks you to the faulty component.
Open your boardview now01Open a file
Open a boardview file online
No converter, no desktop install: drop the file and the tool reads it natively, components and nets included. What each format is, and where it comes from.
- Open a .brd or .brd2 file online: the historical OpenBoardView format, BRD2 and Test_Link variants, with refdes search and top/bottom flip.
- Open a .fz file: PCB Repair Tool boards, common on Quanta and ASRock, read with no prior conversion.
- Open a .tvw file: Tebo IctView, straight off the production-line tester.
- Open a .pcb file: the XZZ-encrypted format, which also carries the factory’s expected resistance and voltage per net.
- .cad: GenCAD 1.4, used for ASUS mainboards.
- Open a .bdv or .asc file: the HONHAN BoardViewer and ASUS TSICT test exports, read as they come off the tester.
- .bv, .bvr, .gr, .cst, .f2b: the ATE, binary BoardViewer, BoardView R5.0, Card Analysis ST and Unisoft ProntoPLACE formats, all read the same way.
Open your board in the browser: free, no account, nothing stored.
02Formats
The boardview format problem
Every manufacturer and every factory tool has its own format: .fz files on the Quanta and ASRock side, the historical .brd and its variants, GenCAD .cad for ASUS mainboards, the .bdv, .asc, .tvw files coming out of production-line test tools. Fourteen incompatible formats circulate in the repair world, and documentation for the same board rarely arrives twice in the same shape.
Every shop knows the result: a collection of small utilities, each opening one or two formats, none talking to the others, and the PDF schematic open in a separate window with no link whatsoever to the boardview.
WrenchBoard attacks the problem at the root: one viewer, all fourteen parsed natively (.kicad_pcb, .pcb, .brd and .brd2 in BRD2 and Test_Link variants, .cad, .fz, .bdv, .asc, .tvw, .bv, .bvr, .gr, .cst, .f2b). Bring the file, the tool reads it.
Two formats go further than the rest. .kicad_pcb is native source, so values and footprints come through exactly. And the XZZ-encrypted .pcb carries the factory’s own test expectations (the resistance and voltage each net is supposed to read), which the agent compares against your live measurements.
03The canvas
What the canvas can do
The boardview renders in an interactive canvas designed for the repair bench:
- Refdes search: type
R49and the view goes there, whichever side it’s on. - Net highlighting: every pin of a power net lit up at once, to follow a rail across the board.
- Top/bottom flip: automatic side switch when the component you’re after is on the other face.
- Type filtering: show only the fuses, only the connectors, only the capacitors.
- Annotations and arrows: mark a probe point, trace a signal path between two components.
- Physical distance: measure the gap between two centers in millimeters, useful before running a jumper.
- Touch-driven: pinch-zoom, pan and tap-select on phone and tablet, not desktop only.
The reading rides along with your next message
BAT1FUSED · 0 V · 14:02 You do not retype it, and the agent reads it before it answers.
04The agent
The WrenchBoard difference: an agent-driven boardview
Everything above exists, scattered across other viewers. What exists nowhere else: the canvas is exposed to a diagnostic agent as a toolset. Eighteen commands (highlight, zoom, dim the irrelevant, point at a pin, propose a step-by-step measurement protocol) that the agent calls while it reasons.
Concretely: you report “board dead, no LED”. The agent checks the device’s failure rules, identifies the input fuse as the prime suspect, and at that same moment the boardview zooms onto F1, highlights it and shows step 1 of the protocol: continuity across the fuse. You measure, you report the reading, the view moves to the next point.
The boardview viewer stops being a document you consult and becomes the diagnostic’s working screen. It’s the core of the approach described on the microsoldering software page.
Watch it work
The same agent, on a real board
This is not a mockup, it is the bench itself with its own interface, running on the MNT Reform pack exported from the engine: 487 real components and 2066 real pads. Every step below is what the engine answers on this board, from the device's rules for the symptom to the schematic graph behind the input fuse F1 and the board net it feeds. Here is what the agent does with a board that will not power up.
Eight tool calls, each one a real answer from the engine on this board, and not one component named from memory.
05The graph
Boardview + schematic: the electrical graph
A boardview gives you component positions and nets; it doesn’t tell you each net’s role. WrenchBoard closes that gap with schematic ingestion: a PDF goes page by page through a vision model and comes out as a compiled electrical graph (power rails classified, boot sequence inferred, connections queryable).
With both sources loaded, the agent reasons on the schematic and acts on the boardview: it knows that +5V comes out of U7, what it enables and what falls with it, and where to put the probe to verify it. That junction is what makes end-to-end guided motherboard diagnostics possible.
06Your file
Try it with your own file
The viewer is live and free: open your own boardview in the browser, no account needed, nothing stored. When you want more than viewing, the free plan opens the full bench on devices covered by the knowledge base, and the Pro plan adds durable ingestion of your own boardviews and schematics into a device pack the diagnostic agent reasons on. The full engine is source-available on GitHub for shops that prefer self-hosting.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Which boardview formats are supported?
Fourteen formats, all parsed natively: .kicad_pcb (native KiCad), .pcb (XZZ-encrypted, which also carries the factory's expected resistance and voltage per net), .brd and .brd2 (BRD2 and Test_Link), .cad (GenCAD 1.4), .fz (PCB Repair Tool, used on Quanta and ASRock), .bdv (HONHAN BoardViewer), .asc (ASUS TSICT), .tvw (Tebo IctView), .bv (ATE), .bvr (binary BoardViewer), .gr (BoardView R5.0), .cst (Card Analysis ST) and .f2b (Unisoft ProntoPLACE). Bring the file, the tool reads it, no conversion needed.
Does it work on a phone or tablet?
Yes. The boardview canvas is fully touch-driven: pinch-zoom, pan and tap-select, so you can pull the board up on the tablet you keep next to the hot-air station, not just on a desktop.
How do I open a .fz file?
Drop the file into WrenchBoard from the browser: the .fz format (used for Quanta and ASRock boards among others) is parsed natively, components and nets included. No prior conversion, no software to install.
How do I open a .brd file online?
Drop the .brd into WrenchBoard from the browser. Both the BRD2 and the OpenBoardView Test_Link variants are read natively, components and nets included, with refdes search and top/bottom flip. No conversion, nothing to install.
How do I open a .tvw file?
Same as any other format: drop the .tvw (a Tebo IctView production-line export) into the browser and it opens directly, with no converter in between.
Does the viewer work offline?
The cloud version needs a connection, but the engine is source-available: you can self-host it on your own bench machine and work fully locally.
Can I search for a specific component or net?
Yes: refdes search (U7, R49, F1…), highlighting of every pin on a net, filtering by component prefix, physical distance measurement between two points, and top/bottom flip with automatic side switching.
How is it different from classic boardview viewers?
The agent layer. In WrenchBoard the boardview isn't just a display: it's a surface the diagnostic agent commands through tools (highlight, zoom, dim, draw arrows, propose a measurement protocol) while it reasons over the board's schematic.
How do I open a board view file online?
Same way, and it is the same thing: "board view" in two words and "boardview" in one name the same file, the export a factory test tool makes of a board. Drop it in the viewer and it opens in the browser, no conversion step and nothing to install, whichever way your supplier spells it.
Get started
Try Wrench Board free, in your browser.
Free plan, no card required. Open the app, pick a covered device, and start a diagnostic session with the agent.