Total newbie, first board w/ KiCad. I made a board using an SVG as the outline from Google Sketchup in Fritzing and it worked okay, but I’m trying to get better dimensional stability than just eyeballing it.
I imported an SVG from Draftsight into the PCB editor and moved the lines to the Edge.Cuts layer. I placed via’s and connected them as needed. I went to fabrication outputs/Gerbers and plotted my output. I took that zipped output into the OshPark website but I don’t see any copper on the vias.
Lots of warning that “Via is not connected or connected on only one layer” and one error that “Board has malformed outline (no edges found on Edge.Cuts layer”.
It can be the reason that PCB ‘not exists as have no correct border’.
I have never tried OshPart website and don’t know what information about source of problems you can get from them.
But first fix this error. I have used importing DXF graphics for complicated PCB shape (a dozen or so arcs cut at their intersections). Your PCB border looks so simple that why not draw it directly in KiCad. Probably the shape you imported is not properly closed or is not at Edge.Cuts layer.
I don’t know how 3D viewer behaves in such case (its behavior changed during versions changing).
Have you read:
I don’t know what exactly is inside now (I have read it in 2017 so many, many chnages) but it is big chance you can solve your problem if you follow it.
It was created from a cross section by the mechanical design team so it was simpler to try and import already existing data then recreate it (possibly wrong) from scratch.
Sketchup, fritzing and draftsight to make a PCB in KiCad?
It’s also unusual that I don’t see the holes in the PCB editor, but they are shown in the 3D viewer.
You also mention via’s, but they look like THT pads. In KiCad THT pads are always part of footprints. And this makes it even foggier what you did.
You probably made a mistake there as DRC reports that the Edge.Cuts layer is empty. You can certainly import a 2D SVG drawing on the Edge.Cuts layer in KiCad.
Starting with the “Getting started in KiCad 8.0” as Piotr suggest is a good idea. KiCad has many functions and it will take some time & effort to know them well enough go be able to draw an PCB.
For the pads you can use Testpoint footprints. KiCad has a lot of testpoints both SMT and THT and with different sizes and drill diameters. For this it looks like it’s doable to draw the PCB without a schematic first, but KiCad does not work well without a schematic, and drawing a schematic first, then adding the footprint links to the schematic symbols is even in this simple case a better option.
Why mention those other programs at all if you did not use them for this (iteration of) your project?
Draftsight is (I think) some mechanical drawing program. It’s not needed at all for a simple design such as this. It can be done easily and completely in KiCad itself, even though KiCad’s mechanical drawing capabilities are quite limited.
In my original post I tried to show the difference between how the fritzing board rendered vs the KiCad board but it would only let me post one image so I deleted the comparison and forgot about the first part.
Let’s leave that in the past then and focus on the future. First do the “Getting started in KiCad” tutorial, then do the project over, first with a schematic and then the PCB. If the outlines are easy to fit on some kind of grid, then it’s also very easy to draw it in KiCad. It’s just a rectangle. You can even simply enter the width and height for a rectangle:
And then use the context menu under the right mouse button and use: Shape Modification / Chamfer Lines to add chamfers to all corners.
