A 36" long board will cost plenty. But, there are workarounds.

I have need for a long flex cable (~36"). I sent for quotes, and they all came back as “no-bid.” Are long flex circuits really that much more difficult to build?

Long FPCs are more difficult to build. There are a lot of reasons for this. This month I will cover each, with possible workarounds.

Raw material size limitations. If your bids are from US-based manufacturers, they are probably getting their raw copper-clad materials in 24" x 36" sheets (unless special ordered). So even if the manufacturer makes its processing panel size 36" long, a 36"-long FPC would not fit unless it was run diagonally, which is not practical from a cost perspective. You may want to see if the fabricator is willing to purchase materials from Asia, which typically are delivered on long rolls. This would solve the raw material issue, but not any of the processing issues (covered later).

Can via-in-pad be used on a flex or rigid-flex circuit with SMT parts?

SMT is successfully implemented on flex and rigid-flex every day. Standard through-hole constructions are the most cost-effective, but in some cases there is no room for through-holes and their larger pad diameters. Via-in-pad is a design strategy that may be required with very tight pitch BGA components and other SMT devices on flex and rigid-flex. The advantage of using a microvia is the hole size is quite small, and the associated pad is small as well. This provides more real estate for routing signals, especially out of BGA patterns. The rules-of-thumb and considerations are different, however, depending on whether the part is purely flex or rigid-flex.

For a pure flex, where all the material is flexible, consider a couple of things. Typically, via depths are much shallower than for a rigid or rigid-flex part. This means less solder may be consumed in the PTH. In some cases, the hole must be plugged, however.