Hello,
I’m using KiCAD 7.0.11. I sent the Gerber output to the PCB manufacturer and received a reply stating that its CAM software can’t read my Gerber data. It can only read .drl files. They suggest that I generate the output in RS-274X format. What format do I get when I generate a Gerber using File/Fabrication Outputs/Gerbers?
It depends on how you have the setting set . . . I have mine like this and have no issues with JLCPCB
I generate the outputs for JLCPCB with the Fabric Toolkit module, and it generally works fine. I’m now trying another fabricator. I sent them the Fabric Toolkit outputs and received the response mentioned earlier. I tried to compare these outputs with File/Fabrication Outputs/Gerbers and didn’t notice any major difference, although there is a difference in some commands. For example:
toolkit
D14*
X-5236396Y131215000D03*
X-3380241Y135696155D03*
X-3380241Y131983845D03*
X-2611396Y133840000D03*
vs.
File/Fabrication Outputs/Gerbers
D14*
X65463604Y-33625000D03*
X67319759Y-29143845D03*
X67319759Y-32856155D03*
X68088604Y-31000000D03*
My setting is
I sent the newly generated data to the manufacturer. This time he can somehow open it. But he claims that he thinks the data is strange. The automatic format detection did not recognize the format correctly, they had to manually set RS-274-X No Apertures, and thus they also have no apertures.
They use CAM350 software. Screenshot from it is here
Seems like someone here has run into a similar problem.
If this is a Chinese fab, be aware they all seem to be on holiday this week
It’s not in such a hurry… It’s not a Chinese factory. 
The filename, MIK ALLinONE_CPU_r7.DO is strange. .DO is not a standard Gerber file extension. Are you sure this a file generated by KiCad?
You are right, these are not files from my project, except B-MX6ULL-A2.ZIP. I assume the technologist was already working on another project and just wanted to demonstrate the option he used.
I’m not sure what is going on with your manufacturer, but RS-274X is a very old format (Ucamco released it’s specifications in 1998). The X2 format was released in 2014. If your fab has problems with KiCad’s output format, then they probably have not updated their software for quite some years.
I don’t know what that “Fabric Toolkit Module” is, but if you are using some software to generate specialized output for one fab, then that software is unlikely to produce output that works with another fab.
It’s possible their software expect the old protel file namening convention. In the X2 standard, the function of each file is embedded in the file and file extensions should not matter.
Thanks, so I should turn off the X2 option and try that.
I seem to have messed up the description of what happened. First, I sent the output of the Fabric Toolkit module to the factory.
“Fabric Toolkit Module” is exactly this
I got a reply that they couldn’t read it, so I made a new output using the generic KiCAD function - File/Fabrication Outputs/Gerbers and sent it back to the factory. On this second attempt, I got a response that the format is strange because the auto-recognition doesn’t work, but when they manually set RS-274-X No Apertures, it somehow works, but without apertures.
In some screenshot above you can see the option “disable aperture macros”. The option has been added to the dialog because some software couldn’t handle aperture macros. You can try that.
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