Import Excellon format in KiCad

[FanThomas]

Hello, I absolutely need to import excellon files. Unfortunately without success. I need to generate one DRL file where there will be coordinates and NC TOOLS to be able to make a DPS. The PCB manufacturer rejects these drl files. Gerber files its ok.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1TpPHS9mSRbvEGg772jo39ynh42qof4fM/view?usp=sharing

[hermit]

Welcome aboard. I can’t answer your question but I did make it possible for you to upload a file here.

[greg_m]

Haven’t tried it, but seems like this may be helpful to convert Excellon to Gerber format:

GitHub - curtacircuitos/pcb-tools: Tools to work with PCB data (Gerber,...

I also found this:
https://www.artwork.com/gerber/drill2gbr/index.htm

[paulvdh]

Does this look familiar:

I created it with KiCad’s gerber viewer, but before I did I first pasted the header of another drill file into your file. When opened in a text editor your drill files seem to only hold coordinates and are missing the decimal points. I also do not know if it’s metric, imperial or banana units, so the scale may be vastly off when the file assumes the header information of another drill file, but at least the data itself is present.

I guess it is a very old format, and back then it was common to omit such information. I also tried gerbv from the GEDA project, but it also chokes on your (unmodified) file.

A quite different approach is:

Reverse engineering KiCad project from Gerber files

2022-01-17 The goal of this reverse-engineering tutorial is to re-create a complete KiCad project from partial information assuming the only information available is a schematic in some readable, (but not EDA form, such as a .pdf or a .png picture), and a set of gerber files. The Gerber files will create a PCB with much PCB information missing, however, using this method is easier than re-designing a PCB from scratch, and can also be extended to any other program that creates Gerber files. …

With that you do not directly fix your drill files, but by creating a KiCad project from your Gerbers, you can replace the pads with real footprints in KiCad, and those new footprints include fresh holes too.

[FanThomas]

Thank you very much everyone for your help. This is how drilling in Viewmate looks like, import drill from the DRL file and import apertures from the DRM file. I am very unhappy about it. You are right, it is a very old draft system. I last used it 15 year

s ago…

[FanThomas]

The drilling parameters should be

excellon: 2.3 format
mode: absolute
zero suppression: leading
units: metric
character: ASCI

[paulvdh]

That sword is certainly recognizable in my screenshot

@FanThomas

The drilling parameters should be

Well then, do as I did. Generate a simple KiCad project close to those parameters, generate the gerber files, and then copy & paste the header of that file into your own files. (I also had to remove the “T” line in the beginning, as tool i specified in the header.

When you’re doing hacky things like this, it is a good idea to verify your results with several online gerber viewers. The reference viewer from Ucamco should be one of the better ones.