Gerber filenames with Protel extensions

[Llaves]

A lot of the PCB fab houses want all the filenames to be the same but with Protel extensions. If I plot the Gerbers with the Protel extensions options checked I do get the desired Protel extensions, but the names all end with an abbreviation of the layer name, eg - MyProject-F,SilkS.gto, Renaming the files is not the end of the world, but is there a way to get the export with just the project name as the name part? Or is this an enhancement request for an option to provide “clean” names?

I’m on Windows, if it matters, and am still running 4.x
Apologies in advance if this feature has already been added to 5.x

[hermit]

Have you checked the plot function for gerbers yet? It is in 5 and I thought it was in 4 but I don’t have a copy to check.

[Sprig]

@Llaves I don’t ever remember KiCad changing the actual first part of the name in Windoze installations.

I checked a few designs I sent out, and the file names were all as you expected they would be.

[eelik]

@Llaves

Renaming the files is not the end of the world

But it gets very, very tedious when you make many small boards one after one, many versions, and after every one of them you have to rename the gerber files. I have used AntRenamer. I could use a KiCad feature where I could construct the file names like this:

${PROJECT_NAME}-${LAYER_FIRST}_${LAYER_SECOND}.${PROTEL_EXTENSION}

I would need especially layer names like F_Cu instead of F.Cu. It’s so infuriating that e.g. gmail doesn’t accept file names with several dots in attachements.

[Rene_Poschl]

@eelik

I would need especially layer names like F_Cu instead of F.Cu. It’s so infuriating that e.g. gmail doesn’t accept file names with several dots in attachements.

Do you really send the files separately instead of compressing them?

[eelik]

Unfortunately gmail checks inside zip files.

[serkanxselcuk]

Did you try to rename extension into “.zie”, so gmail wouldn’t understand extension.

[dchisholm]

@serkanxselcuk

Did you try to rename extension into “.zie”, so gmail wouldn’t understand extension.

That may sneak the file past the email security filter, but you run the risk of confusing the recipient. Or, he may get annoyed when he double-clicks on the attachment and gets the dialog about “Unknown file type. What do you want the computer to do with this strange file?”.

Dale