Hi,
The problem I have, everything looks right in PCBNEW, when l generate the Gerber files and load the Gerbers into Gerber Viewer they look okay.
But saving a PCB file from Gerber Viewer. The resultant PCB file doesnot show the pads for pin 1 on each connector.
Here are the Gerber files:
Gerber.zip (8.3 KB)
and the Exported PCB file from Gerber View:
Expander.kicad_pcb (64.6 KB)
Maybe it is the way the Gerber files are generated.
Regards
Derek
Are you thinking the roundtrip PCB → Gerber → PCB should be lossless? I don’t think it is, or can be. The Gerber to PCB feature is intended for reverse engineering, not to provide a lossless roundtrip.
Hi,
I loaded the Gerber files to PCBWAY, which their Gerber Viewer shows the PCB to be:
There is a Pad missing from Pin 1 on Top and Bottom sides on each connector.
I cannot replicate your problem. Your zip file looks fine under three viewers: gerbview, PCBWay’s viewer, and tracespace.io. Perhaps you should ask PCBWay why you are seeing your picture.
BTW, you do not need to generate the paste files if you are not doing SMD assembly. They are for making the solder paste stencil.
Hi,
I tried PCBWAY again, their Gerber Viewer displayed missing the connector pads for pin 1.
But I looked ayt JCLPCB, which their Gerber Viewer displayed the correct layout. So I ordered my PCBs.
I am not sure what is going on, but 2 Gerber viewers did not display correctly.
So, problem solved, thank you for the help given.
Back to PCB designing on more complicated projects.
Regards,
Derek
KiCad exports rounded rectangle pads in a different way than some other shapes, as aperture macros. Some viewers don’t understand them even though they are correct according to the gerber standard.
A broken web viewer doesn’t mean they can’t handle it. The web view is only for your reference.
For some context, see for example Small pad conners distored at JLCPCB Gerber viewer and Apologies from atommann (an engineer from JLCPCB), about Gerber X2 files at JLCPCB (two different issues, the online viewer and the internal process of JLCPCB). Both threads may (or may not) be outdated by now.
This is one of the problems of the kicad… There is no editor of gerber file and macros… Cannot change without additional program… I often have to change the file of the stencil (paste) and even after turning off the macro, not all sites become primitives during generation…
What are the changes you need to do to the stencil file?
For example, remove macros from specific apertures to replace a complex form with a primitive on specific sites… For example, change the diamond to a square… In general, everything that the editor of gerber fails does cam… In Altium, all this is done simply within the framework of one project… My questions to the developers were answered that all this is very difficult and we will not do… Although it seems to me that editing gerber (possibility) is one of the main functions of any cad file preparation production
Another point is that under linux there is basically no full-fledged gerber editor from the word at all… Well, as you know altium cam 350 and the like do not work on linux at all…
The changes you mention, are these changes to the image, or changes to the construction of the Gerber file without changing the image?
When I for the first time used KiCad rounded rectangle my contract manufacturer said he has no tool to modify Paste layer as he needs. Before that, for years, I always had Solder Paste clearance=0 and thought it needs not to be corrected.
Then I got from him what the clearance should be and why and I modified my setting (I also had to modify some footprints) and I got the Paste gerber as he needed to be said that during this one day he also got the right tool and he modified my previous files.
Since then I send him Paste files, he need not to do with them anything (I hope so).
I don’t see a need to modify anything at gerber layer as postprocessing. It is better to correctly set parameters in Board Setup and in footprints.
These changes are only gerber file without changing the fee…
I am engaged in cutting stencils myself for prototypes and often have to edit. The second case when you need to order a stencil for your frame to indicate holes for pins in gerber file… Everything that goes beyond the amateur level of printed circuit boards sometimes requires editing the gerber file… Yes, of course, all this is solved by third-party software manufacturers, but so we will not get a full-fledged cam cad editor
Yes, yes… I suggested that they consider the gerbv option where most of the work is done and libraries are available, but they are not interested in it) It is more interesting for them to draw new beautiful pictures for beauty and not add the necessary functions from full-fledged cad) Well, as a result, I can say that you can’t do without third-party editors and in 8 versions of changes do not see global
The phrase the ability to edit gerber can be dangerous sounds funny))))
Ok I think the discussion about a Gerber editor has deviated from the OP’s issue. If you want to continue, there is the thread KiCad 8 (7.99) Future Versions Wishlist (Gerber) - #2 by eelik which the participants here already know about.
