Just thought I’d ask first before delving in and doing it the hard way, I want to laser cut my pcb in card so I can check locations and fit in the enclosure.
Is there a quick way to export just the board outline and holes, so I can get it into the laser software?
Board outline is in the Gerber EdgeCuts file. Holes are in the Excellon PTH and NPTH files.
Thanks, I got the edge cuts layer out to an SVG fine, but I can’t get the holes as well?
I can get edge cuts and back mask to get the location of the holes but the masks are obviously larger than the actual holes.
To get the drill files you have to click on generate drill files. For v5 at least.
Got it! BUT the drill file SVG shows some of my holes as squares?
The oval slots and holes came out correct. Holes for LED’s came out square amd holes for a header came out as diamond shapes?
I can work with this, but just curious why!
Perhaps you should start with a DXF file imported into a Kicad mechanical layer?
Then align your pcb + DXF import.
By any chance did you export a DRILL map? this is more for human reading as an idea as to where some of the drills are, the types and the quantities. A crib is used to distinguish the types.
if you want the centrer, the method I use for tapping heatsinks is to export as SVG with with small drill marks. Under Plot you can choose the format (SVG) and under general options whether you include drill marks (small works). Then I select only F.Cu and also ensure “[x] Plot Edge.Cuts on all layers” is selected
the SVG is opened in inkscape and you can “select same” to select everything that is black because the holes are exported as white circles. With all selected they can be deleted. Then box select everything to select all the white holes and change the fill to black - NOTE: you might want to select the boarder 1st and change the colour otherwise it will be selected and deleted with all
its long winded, but it does provide means to print out a centres file
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