We need to close the loop on Digikey, PCB fabs, and KiCad

I'm currently in the process of building out my second ever PCB, first ever done by myself. I'm building a claw machine - mostly for fun and to learn how to better design pcbs and get experience with electrical engineering. It's been fun! I especially love KiCad, it is so freaking simple and intuitive and the fact that it is open source gives me hope in humanity.

I wanted to write this to point out one of the pain points I had during pcb development. Maybe this is just one of those first time learning curve things but yea....

So the issue I had was that the separation between PCB design software, part vendors, and the fab shop. I would design my PCB, have to change my design because I find the footprints/symbols in my design don't match the cheapest thing the vendors offer (Digikey), and then I would have to revise my pcb design after I submit it to fab, and then yea you get the gist. There is just a disconnect between the components a beginner designer like me works with and the enormous catalog of DigiKey, as well as the fab's rules. Now that I'm writing this, I learned that nailing down the components first, and then doing pcb design/layout seems to be the path to doing as little revisions as possible. Maybe I'm just being lazy and I just don't want to do revisions lol.

I think in a perfect world, there would be a set list of components that a fab has, and I can just export all footprints/symbols for those components into KiCAD under a library, and then have those things automatically map to DigiKey MFGPNs so I don't have to keep going back and forth between the three things. It would be so nice if I could just start in KiCAD, have all my components chosen for me ( basic passive components, etc.) and then just have them be the cheapest thing that vendors offer; or the vendor can partner with the fabs to set up this beginner workflow so PCB design doesn't seem so intimidating.

This probably already exists and I just don't know about it.

Anyways, I'm excited. I just spent like

$400 (im testing this code block functionality lol)

on the following

- all the smd components - PCB and stencil - soldering iron, solder, flux, fan, wire, wick, helping hands, magnifying glass, tweezers, etc.

It's gonna be like Christmas once all my components get here.

Edit: Oh brother JLPCB just contacted me they need to do a 4 wire Kelvin Test??? WTF is that.... Them boys charging $70 for that just cuz I have a couple of holes with size 0.15mm... Time to revise again >:(