Newbie question, gerber folder is blank when uploading to JLBPCB

Manufacturing
1

Hey all, literally first time trying to get a board made, not sure if this is just a process error or something is wrong with my board.

I am making a super simple board to test some harnessing. Everything looks good in the Gerber viewer on Kicad( i think) and im following steps from JLBPCB for generating the gerbers and drill files, that all seems to work normally. When I go to JLBPCB to upload my gerber, the file where Ive saved them is blank?

Frankly I was expecting to have issues with the board once i uploaded it( i dont think i have my silkscreen layer setup properly) but wasnt expecting to not be able to upload it, any tips would be appreciated.

2

So if you view the zip in KiCad’s Gerber viewer it all looks normal?

What do you mean the file is blank? You need to zip up the gerbers and upload them.

Once uploaded you should see your PCB in the viewer like this:

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image1092×579 94.2 KB

3

Put all the Gerber & Drill files (if you have any through hole components) into one ZIP file and upload that at JLCPCB by dragging and dropping it here . . .

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image1008×638 50.5 KB

4

Probably the folder looks blank because the upload form is filtering for zip or rar files so there are no candidates for suitable files.

Pay attention to the webpage! In the screenshot above you can see “accept zip or rar”. And JLCPCB’s help page states near the end: If everything is OK, now you can zip the out folder and place the order.

Or mounting holes. I would send the drill files anyway.

5

If you’re just starting out there are plugins that make the process of creating and zipping gerber files really easy. I use “SparkFun KiCad CAMmer” for this task and simply upload the zip file created by it to JLCPCB. Job done, no extra thinking required.