How to specify file name for Gerbers?

Manufacturing
1

This ought to be simple, but I can’t figure it out. How do I specify the file name (not type) for gerber files? I want just the board name for each file (with different types for the different layers). Kicad doesn’t seem to want me to do that. Where do I specify the file name to use? Having to change each one by hand is a pain. Thanks for any suggestions.

2

{project name}-{layer name}.{gerber extension}

What is your problem exactly?
You can chose in the plot dialog if you want protel gerber extensions (.gbo, .gbl, etc.pp.) or just plain .gbr for all of them.
Usually the boardhouse wants the protel extensions, cause then their CAM system (or better the bloke sitting in front of it) doesn’t have to interpret what the filename means.

3

Here’s what I want: {Project name}.{gerber extension}. I will use the Protel extensions to identify the layers. How do I make that happen?

Thanks for your help.

4

tested to work on Windows7 Powershell to rename {project name}-{layer name}.{gerber extension} into {project name}.{gerber extension} without touching the drill files:

get-childitem *.g?? |
foreach-object {
$projectname = $.name.split(’-’)[0]
$extension = $.name.split(’.’)[1]
$newfilename = $projectname + ‘.’ + $extension
rename-item $_.name -NewName $newfilename
}

5

Thanks for your suggestion. I expect I will just change the names after I create the gerbs. Being able to specify this directly within Kicad when I create the gerbs would be much simpler and is what I had in mind.

6

Yeah, I don’t see an option either.
But as the boardhouse doesn’t care for the filename - just the extension is important - I don’t care either :wink: