Both of my silkscreen gerbers will not generate when I try and plot these files. This includes the back silkscreen which has nothing on the layer. I’ve included the error that I see in the Plot Output Window. This was tried on a different PC and I attempted to only create a single layer. I’m looking for help on how to fix this issue or to know where to look at what might be creating this error.
Thanks.
Error: Failed to create file ‘\XXXX\BoardDesign-B_Silkscreen.gbr’.
Your KiCad version and OS details?
Application: KiCad x64 on x64
Version: 8.0.9, release build
Platform: Windows 10 (build 19045), 64-bit edition
Even an empty silkscreen layer will generate a non-empty file due to the headers, etc. Have you tried generating the full set of gerbers to see if the other layers can be written too?
Is XXXX in your path somewhere you are permitted to create files in? Normally people pick a subfolder of the project folder for the gerbers.
I tried 8.0.9 on Windows 11 and the silkscreen Gerbers are plotted OK
Yes, it is only the silkscreen layers that do not generate when I request a full set. The others generate fine.
I have the correct permissions on the path, there is another project within the folder structure so I know that should not be the issue. I just swapped out XXXX with the path information for privacy reasons.
Yes, I am able to plot other projects just fine, a co-worker is also able to plot just fine on other projects with a different KiCAD version. However, neither of us is able to plot this project.
Have you tried clearing the output directory and regenerating the gerbers? Could you have old copies of the silkscreen gerbers that cannot be overwritten because they don’t belong to you, or they are locked, or something like that? Have a look at the timestamps on the gerber files.
Another thing you could try is to turn on the Protel filenames checkbox which will generate a different set of filenames. Just to see what happens and maybe get some insight.
This project has never had the gerbers generated. So that isn’t the issue.
Turning on the Protel filenames also resulted in a failure.
That’s truly bizarre. Does it also happen in other projects? If it’s only this project then you may have happened upon a rare bug.
Unfortunately as the current release is v9, the way forward is to see if it happens there and to report it if so. Are you able to upload the project for others to confirm? Or can you trim it down to small project which doesn’t have any sensitive design info?
How long (i.e., how many characters) is the fully-expanded path name for this file?
I don’t recall the details now, but in the past I had problems creating or saving files when the path name got too long. I think the restriction was 255 (or 256?) characters - including the drive letter, colon, slashes, etc - but I don’t recall whether it was restricted by KiCAD, the OS, the company’s server, or something else.
For a quick diagnosis, create a "…\tmp" directory a couple levels up on the path and try plotting to it.
Dale
It does not happen with other projects.
Unfortunately I am unable to upload portions of it at this time.
Should not be the issue, since other gerber files are able to be plotted.
Count the characters in the fully-expanded path name for the file.
KiCAD’s Gerber plotter spells out the full word “B_Silkscreen” (12 characters) in the filename, which makes that particular filename a few characters longer than the others. E.g., “B_Cu” is only 4 characters, “B_Mask” is 6 characters, etc. After the IT folks finish building the storage server’s directory structure you end up with a fully-expanded path for the file that looks something like:
" C:\Amalgamated_Widgets\East_Coast_Division\Work_Group_Files\Engineering\Product_Design\2025_Projects\Users\Joe_Schmo\Documents\Frammis_Upgrade\Version_3\Motor_Control_Circuit\Revision_B\Circuit_Board\KiCAD_Layout\Gerber_Files\BoardDesign-B_Silkscreen.gbr "
If the ghost of Edsel Murphy happens to be wandering past your cubicle, the complete path name is just a few characters short of the limit for most of your Gerber files, but over the limit for the long names - like “Silkscreen”, “User_Drawings”, “User_Comments”, etc.
Dale
Me and the ghost of Edsel Murphy are no longer friends I can’t believe with the obscene path file name length it came down to a few characters and by a few I mean 3 I tested it for giggles.
Thank you. I really appreciate it.
I don’t know if Kicad is an app that supports it or not, but in Win10/11 there’s a registry key that increases a path name to like 32k characters from like 260 characters. LongPathsEnabled is the registry entry.
For an app to take advantage of LongPathsEnabled, additionally that app needs to have the longPathAware element in the application manifest.
Whether you and Edsel Murphy’s ghost are on speaking terms or not, you are still compelled to abide by his laws. As you have observed, the path length limitation is not a value that would prevent creation of ALL the Gerber files - that would make it too easy to diagnose and correct. The restriction only affected SOME of the files.
The KiCAD error message ( "Error: Failed to create file ‘\XXXX\BoardDesign-B_Silkscreen.gbr’ ") didn’t give much information about the failure. I don’t know, but it would not surprise me if the Windows file system returned a code which identified the failure as a path length that was too long. KiCAD’s Gerber plotter then reports all file creation errors as simply “Failed to create the file.”.
dchisholm suggested a cheap experiment to aid diagnosis, just a minute or two to conduct, but you (OP) were adamant it wasn’t the issue, so you ended up wasting time.