Copy a old board layout into KiCAD

You’re still misunderstanding. 10% of RF layouts (itself a tiny niche in PCB design) are designed with CAD drawing tools.

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Also I suspect that for boards that are “designed with CAD drawing tools”, it’s actually only specific parts of the board that are designed this way (such as filters, transmission lines, antennas, and other things where fine control over geometry is critical). The rest of the traces that aren’t in the critical RF path are likely drawn in the EDA tool…

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And I am not sure about the source of the 10%! The author of the article works for a company selling graphic conversion tools, so they may be biased.

But of course, everyone with an unusual corner case always claims it is the “normal” case. :wink:

Here is the traces layer for board 1:


Copper is represented in black

Here is the layout, with both the traces and holes layers:


Copper is represented in black, and for clarity the plated through holes are represented in yellow, with the exposed board surface area being green. The rear of the board is unetched groundplane, with no features other than the plated through holes.

DXF R12 of traces only imported into KiCAD, with board outline and vias added in KiCAD:

Use the imported DXF as a template only, place proper footprints where needed, add zone fills and voilea. 15 minute job, maybe 45 for a beginner.

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Are the arcs in the last KiCad screenshot real arcs or just bunch of short straight lines?

EDIT: or rather, can you attach the .kicad_pcb file here?

How the result appears in 3D viewer:
image
This is the front of the board, with the traces

I has to wait until someone else responded, before being able to continue. The site would only let me make 3 posts in a row.

I attempted something similar with board number 2, but the results weren’t any better. I will post screenshots of that once I finish with the board 1 screenshots.

The arcs, curves, and circles were “real arcs” in the original design file. The conversion to DXF R12 changed them to an approximation based on small straight lines, before being imported into KiCAD

The site still does not present a way for me to attach a file to a post (although I have not tried to do it yet by the same method it allows the screenshots). I apparently do not have the ability to send a PM, either. I might be able to reply to a PM and attach a file, if a PM is sent to me first. There is also an apparent limitation on posting screenshots as well, I can only do three in a row, then have to wait for someone else to reply in the thread.

as I rotate the 3D view, this is the position which gives the most visibility of what should be the copper traces:
image

Drag a file from a file manager to this text editor when you write a post. Or use the Upload button on top of the editor area.

In that case you should be able to convert these outlines to polygons in version 5.99. It would take a couple of minutes.

The soild groundplane surface on the rear of the board, in 3D view:
image
In a straight-on view, it appears similar to the front of the board, with the copper areas not visible.

I will next do a similar series of screenshots for board 2, as the site allows me to, 3 at a time until someone else posts.

More screenshots of 3D view aren’t useful. Please attach the kicad pcb file, then we can experiment.

Just tried it that way, I still get the error saying that new users cannot upload file attachments!

So you are saying that imported outlines from a DXF R12 are correctly able to be filled in version 5.99? If so, that’s excellent! But I won’t be able to download and try it that way immediately, my internet connection is unfortunately very limited in data usage.

Can you please send me a PM, so I can attempt to reply with the file? The site isn’t allowing me to attach it to a post, either by using file attachment, or drag and drop.

I can’t guarantee that. It will be seen when tested.

BTW, you can browse the forum for a while to raise your status. Read other topics. Or some moderator can do a magic trick. @hermit?

Since board 2 is not much more than simple rectangles for the traces, I attempted to do it by drawing zones, and then dropping in the vias. It appears to work on the screen and everything appears properly filled:

Didn’t know that! I was looking for something on site policies to try figuring out if I was under a time limit or a post count limit, but couldn’t find any information on that whatsoever.

Edit: board 2 behaves in a similar manner to board 1, in the 3D viewer

BTW, you can browse the forum for a while to raise your status. Read other topics. Or some moderator can do a magic trick.

Power up enabled. :wink:

If this was supposed to allow me to attach a file to a post, it didn’t work. Still not able to attach files.

You have accumulated 5 hours or read time which should be plenty for uploading files.

What did you do in your attempts to attach a post?
(Also note that you have now already made 37 posts in this thread, and you write things like:

This has 0.0 amount of information for others who try to help. It does not say anything about what you’ve tried, where you got stuck, nor a desctiption of any fault messages etc.

Asking smart questions is an art in itself. Eric Stephen Raymond made a good introduction about this topic:
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

This is a similar post about asking good questions:
https://www.pjrc.com/how-to-get-tech-help-from-strangers-on-the-internet/

It is also worth reading, but let the first one sink in a few days before you read it.