Pcbway cannot read KiCAD Gerber file [solved]

[Jeffmon]

Hi users.

Can anyone tell me if I am doing something wrong. I created a 2 layer PCB, gerbered it then sent the Gerber to pcbway. They say they cannot read it but I used 2 Gerber file readers and both read the file OK. Is this a common problem or am I at fault?

Happy New Year to everyone
Cheers jeff

[kenyapcomau]

Can you post your Gerber files? How did you package it for them? Zip? Rar? What exactly did they say? Did you use the Quick Order Form which reads the files to obtain parameters like size, etc? Did that work? Which Gerber readers did you use? Did you use the PCBWay one? Have you followed the instructions on PCBWay’s documentation on how to export suitable files from Kicad?

[davidsrsb]

Did you use the extended X2 option, which is beyond many cheap fabs?

[fred4u]

I frequently order quick prototypes in PCBWay, and they never had a single issue reading my KICAD generated gerbers.
Btw, I am using the Geda’s GERBV for gerber verification.

[anson]

Could you send the file to my mail (deleted)@pcbway.com.I will help you check the problem

EDIT: Please PM @anson if needed.

Bots crawl the web harvesting email addresses. It is always a bad idea to put an email address directly on the web, especially on a forum for this reason. I made the change to protect the users email from spam and scam. (hermit)

[kenyapcomau]

I’ve just resubmitted a job to PCBWay and can confirm that they don’t handle extended attributes (X2). It’s mentioned on their instructions page.

@anson Even I forgot this limitation. Wouldn’t it be better if the website software detected X2 files on upload instead of the audit person afterwards?

[davidsrsb]

X2 is not exactly new, but not supported by the old software many of these board fabs use. This is why the default is X2 unselected

[kenyapcomau]

The problem with Kicad, at least the version I’m using, 5.1.5, is that there seems to be only one set of global pcbnew defaults, and my project started off with whatever it was set at in the previous project. I noticed because the previous fab wanted a single drill file but I should have also checked the X2 setting. Just something for me to remember next fab I try.