I’m trying to open a Gerber file in KiCad, but I’m encountering multiple “Unexpected character” errors in GerberView.The ZIP file contains both .gbr and .drl files, so the necessary files seem to be present. However, the issue persists when attempting to open the Gerber files.
How old are these gerber files, and with what software were they made?
Gerber has a long history (First release August 1980, 44 years ago) and there was not much standardization in the beginning and there were some weird dialects out in the wild back then.
Gerber files are a (sort of) human readable file format, and sometimes it’s relatively easy to make it work with KiCad by modifying or adding a few lines.
i tried to open gerber file in kicad. i got below error. here i kept .gbr and .drl in zip file and try to open in gerber viewer. also try to open .gbr and .drl file. still getting below error.
Such an error will occur if you try to open a drill file that is not in Gerber format.
Examples include Excellon format, or a text file that looks like this:
You don’t open the gerber file in KiCad, but in the Gerber viewer. Start the Gerber viewer from the project manager, then load the same files that are in the zip archive one by one from the viewer’s File menu (you may have to unpack the archive first, if you didn’t generate the files yourself).
Are these Gerbers produced by KiCad or from somewhere else? Where were they generated? Are you trying to use gerbview to view them? Have you tried other viewers?