Who is the best PCB fabricator that I can send eagle files to for a few prototype Arduino shields that I need for a project. The board would have some SMD and thru hole. I just want the board, I'll do the soldering. Thanks in advance for your recommendations. Tom :-/
Lets say I will be using Eagle Cad, I am ok with a longer lead time, I but I want the shield to have the Arduino shape and mounting holes, not just square. So who does this well for a cheap price?
If you need a few, like 3, you can try drokbotpdx. They charge $5 per square inch and give you 3 copies. It's within US I believe and is quicker. I've not used it yet (always trying to get things perfect) but several people have said good things about them. There's no setup fee or shipping. BatchPCB.com has been my choice for the last two times. They did decent job and yes they send off to China and that takes something like 20 days for both of my orders. There's also places like seeedstudio or iteadstudio that are located in China and accepts online orders. I'm yet to see their quality when I receive my order. They normally require 10 copies minimal so would be good if you need more than 3 copies of something you've already have confidence on.
I don't like the express services in US of other places that provide propriatary software. Most of them don't take standard files and their software can't export standard files either. You're stuck with them.
Software-wise, EAGLE seems to be popular. I've invested time on it so will continue to use it. But it's propriatary as well so you will need to pay huge due if you want to go beyond a 100mm*80mm board. I recommend it because there's a lot of users and you can get help easily.
Seeedstudio for sure. Just be extra sure your layout is good, because you'll have lots of coasters if you make a mistake 
Eagle, expensive? No way...it's pretty much the cheapest you can get for the most features. Paid $1000 for unlimited PCB and schematic modules, easily pay 10 to 20 times that for a professional package. It's worth the money, especially for simpler designs. When you get concerned about IPC standards etc, then it might be time to upgrade to a professional package...Eagle doesn't do asymmetric rounded/square pads for QFNs, and there isn't a way to specify solder mask sizes on a pad-by-pad basis, for example.
Give iTeadstudio a shot. About $15-$20 cheaper than seeedstudio and they use the same board house. I received my order in 2 weeks.
For $28 + $3 shipping you get (10x) boards up to 10cm x 10cm each. If you only need 1 or 2 though, dorkbotpdx is probably the way to go.
I just got email back from seeedstudio. They're saying my order will be slightly delayed due to the board house making Christmas orders. Wow, that was so early and amazing. Hope for my order, they don't use cheap stuff that are normally used for Christmas stuff.
I've tried lots of shops but my fav is PCB Universe. pcbuniverse.com Great quality, low price and really easy to work with. I think they are in Portland but they have factories offshore but the turn time was fast. My order shipped in only 5 days even though they said it might take 8. I've even started using them at my real job for our production boards. I won't bash our old shop but we are saving around 40% on our boards using them.