Hello!
I have design a board. Here is the PCB view and the corresponding Gerber.
Here is a part of the circuit. As you can see, there are many vias, first in the plated mounting hole,
and then a few others around.
Gerber view doesn’t draw holes. Is this normal? It just reports that there is an aperture (D14, D19),
but it doesn’t clear the hole. Actually I suppose it’s intended, but I would like to know more.
Any hint welcome.
This is indeed as intended.
Gerber files are geared towards the production process, and not for something humans find logical.
Etching copper and drilling holes are two separate production steps. Normally the holes are even drilled, and then plated before the PCB is etched, and locating pins are used as a reference to where everything is on the PCB. There are lots of video’s about PCB production on youtube. Euro circuits has made a bunch of them with quite a lot of details about PCB manufacturing.
(I am not sponsored by Euro Circuits, nor have I ever ordered a PCB from them, I just like their video’s)
The drilled holes are in a separate drill file, and you also have to generate that drill file separately. Gerbview can load the drill file and show them in relation to the other layers.
In KiCad V5.1.x you make the gerbers with:
Pcbnew / File / Plot / Plot Format: Gerber
For the drill file, there are two options. There is a button at the bottom of the previous dialog with “Generate Drill Files”, or you can use: Pcbnew / File / Fabrication Outputs / Drill (.drl) File
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