New to kicad. Cannot open kicad_pcb file

torben_poulsen · March 11, 2015, 1:45pm

Hello I am new to kicad (i come from eagle and altium). But I have found this wonderful opensource project which I would like to work on, but I am strugling to just open the PCB file, so I figure it is somehting basic I have missed. however i cannot find a solution.

It is this project from github:

and heres a picture of the error i get

Any ideas how to fix it?

Andy_Podmore · March 11, 2015, 2:14pm

How did you download the file? Did you download it as a zip file? You could try downloading it again and see if it works.

torben_poulsen · March 11, 2015, 2:33pm

hello thanks for the reply.

I downloaded it as zip. I did it several times. I also tried copying the “code” directly from the file in repository and paste it into a new document.

I am running Ki_cad on windows 7. Can you open the file?

Andy_Podmore · March 11, 2015, 3:16pm

I’m just in the process of rebuilding kicad but as soon as it’s done I’ll try

Andy_Podmore · March 11, 2015, 3:17pm

what version of kicad are you using? Is it a the stable release or a newer build?

Andy_Podmore · March 11, 2015, 3:25pm

I see from the image you uploaded that your using the stable release 4022. If you look at the pcb file as a txt file, because that’s all it is, it was created using version 5420. i don’t thing 4022 can open files created in newer versions. I could be wrong but I’ll install version 4022 now and try it my end. if that’s the case you can install a later build using the Kicad Win-Builder. There is, or was, a problem with it, but if you look on the forum, there is a fix that gets it working correctly.

Andy

torben_poulsen · March 11, 2015, 3:56pm

Hello Andy thanks again for the helpful replys!

I will try to install the never version. Please tell me also if you get the file working when done building

Andy_Podmore · March 11, 2015, 4:03pm

Hi Torben

I’ve have just tried opening the file using build 5504 and it opens fine so it must be because your using an older version

Andy

Andy_Podmore · March 11, 2015, 5:59pm

ok i’ve confirmed it. it will not open using 4022

torben_poulsen · March 11, 2015, 6:43pm

Sweet thanks alot, great help!
I am not sure how to mark this thread as solved and “reward” you points for being awsome?

Dolganoff · March 12, 2015, 2:34pm

You can add [solved] to the title of your original post. There are no rewards here I believe

s_light · March 12, 2015, 8:34pm

it is possible to convert a newer version file back to the old verison by hand:

i have tried this some time ago and reported it at the yahoo mailing list:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/kicad-users/conversations/messages/19485

hi epk,

you can fix this by hand -
i had the problem one time i send a file to http://pcb-pool.com/ (some of there cam operators have only the old kicad version - some have the newer versions…)
make a new project in the old kicad version and just save a clean Pcbnew file.
than open the clean file and the newer version ready file in an texteditor -
easiest way is if you can show them side by side - if you are on windows i recommend Notepad++ (http://notepad-plus-plus.org/) there are also a compare tool (Menu: Plugins - Compare - Compare [Alt+D])
than you can really fast see the difference in the header section - for example the layersetup.
(there are some other things - but i dont remember them - just try after each modification if it works )
you can change the settings with respect to the old version as example file…

with this i got my pcb (created in a current winbuilder version) file opend in the old version (download stable).

its i bit of work but can be done

sunny greetings stefan