I have designed a PCB for flashing my scooters indicators as I bypassed the built in circuit with a 48v to 12v1a stepdown converter to add motorcycle indicators as the ones built in were in the wrong place to be effective. I have a problem that is preventing manufacture of the PCB when I export everything from KiCad PCB file to Gerber the keepout is not exported and every manufacturer I’ve use have failed the board asking for a keepout layer in GM0/GK1/OUTLINE layer from what I’ve seen OUTLINE is Edge.Cuts in KiCad but adding it there is no joy following their guide there is no joy just no keepout being exported. I’ve added a photo of the PCB designer. This is my first ever PCB.
AFAIK the keepout area does not appear in the Gerbers. KiCad just makes sure that the things you want to keep out are not in that area.
However if this is the board you are sending to the manufacturer, I don’t see a board outline. This should be a rectangle in the EdgeCuts layer. Maybe this what they are asking for? Also the board you show isn’t complete, I see ratsnext lines, so you haven’t connected the pads with tracks.
The edge cut is supposed to be a a connected line that goes around your PCB.
You can select the edge cut layer on the right.
Then select the rectangle tool
then draw a rectangle on the the edge cut layer that shown the outline of your board.
Ah, it’s not so easy. You have to draw the copper tracks in the PCB editor to join up the footprints. Otherwise things are not connected and there is zero chance that your board will work. The PCB editor will only allow you to connect things that are connected in the schematic.
I would recommend going through the documentation and following the steps instead of assuming what is happening and skipping steps. Also you should run a Design Rule Check (DRC) on the PCB and deal with all the issues before you have a chance of board that can be manufactured. You should also run an ERC on the schematic too before you progress to the PCB editor.
I added the traces as you mentioned and the rectangle around the board I am able to see these in the Gerber files outputted. I have also now run DRC and ERC and fixed everything in DRC (4 errors 25 warnings). in ERC I get
Do I need to do anything about these errors? As there will be an external power source and everything’s wired and tracked up? I did add a +12 and ground symbols and got the same errors also pin 5 (Control Voltage) isn’t being connected up in this instance as online simulation showed me it wasn’t necessary for my use case
Unless your design is confidential I recommend that you archive your project from the Project Manager and attach the zip file to your post so that others can check it for issues. This can save a lot of back and forth caused by insufficient information. You may need to read more topics to be able to attach, see the FAQ.
Also you might want to update your topic title (using the pen icon) to get relevant responses.
It’s past midnight here but there are lots of other forum members that are awake at the moment.
