DSN file blank in Free router

Projects
1

I have been using Kicad V5 for a while with no issues although I am definitely still a newbie!

I recently updated to V6. Managed to import an older schematic (which I had made a PCB from before). I made some edits and initially the export to Freerouter was OK and did a test route which was OK.

I did some other edits and now the DSN file is blank when it opens in freerouter after a new export.

I have checked the following;

  1. I am opening via project (not standalone)
  2. I did have some edge cuts within the main board but have corrected that
  3. The ideal diodes dont show in the 3d view but the footprints seem OK??
  4. I have some error check issues but mostly around silk screen or courtyard overlaps which I was going to clean up later and that shouldn’t stop the DSN being routable?

What am I missing??? I know it will be a dumb one…

mega+mosfet3.dsn (107.7 KB)
mega+mosfet3.kicad_pcb (603.7 KB)
mega+mosfet3.kicad_sch (606.0 KB)

2

When I opened your .kicad_pcb with the PCB editor and did a DRC, it came back with 365 errors and 192 warnings, a lot them around RG1 and RG2. Maybe you should look at those first. You’ll need to at some point anyway.

3

The warnings are all ‘cosmetic’ (silkscreen overlaps etc.)

Turns out I had left one last edge cut within the main edge cut. Removing that seemed to fix it.

Easy to find once I turned all the layers off except edgecut.

Thanks

4

You should not dismiss those “cosmetic” errors so easily.

Especially when you post your project here, other’s who look at your project do not know this, and analyzing it does cost (and waste) their time.

Long lists of of “cosmetic” errors also hide the important errors. I’m quite sure that the fault on Edge.Cuts was somewhere in that long list.

KiCad V6 has several quick ways to either disable or hide groups of errors and warnings, and delegating that to people who put in time and effort to help you is a bit sloppy. (It is of course tolerable for beginners wit not much experience).

In KiCad V6 you can change the type of the errors in: PCB Editor / File / Board Setup / Design Rules / Violation Severity

You can also change how errors are handled by right clicking on a specific error or warning in the DRC.

image
image786×556 70.6 KB

(That screenshot is from a project in a very early design stage, so has lots of errors).

5

Thank you for the help, very useful info about V6.

With respect, I wasn’t dismissing them, just pointing out the error type shouldn’t stop Freerouter running which they didn’t. I wanted to do a quick test with FR and V6 before I started the clean up.

Thanks again for the extra V6 help :+1:

6

I just tried the latest freerouting.jar 1.5.0 on Windows with the latest Oracle Java 1.8.0 update 331 for home use and it seems the Java version is too old

I will have to try on a work machine using Zulu OpenJDK

Update: Azul Zulu OpenJDK 11.56.19 works fine with Freerouting 1.5.0

7

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