Hi all, I have created some PCB and then Gerber files. On the screen all looks just fine But when I tried to print the bottom side of it there was some mistakes on the paper.
Although view in GerbView looks like image below (OK places marked green),
Print options was - selected layer 2 in layers, set accurate scale 1 in approx. scale, black and white in print mode.
After print was clicked I selected my printer, but there was shown “Generic PostScript” below. I am using Ubuntu operating system and GerbView stable build (2013-jul-07).
Is there some possibility, that I created some mistake in settings or something? It seems to me as bug, but I am quite new in KiCad, so there is possible, that I made some mistake.
I’ve just tried your advice with plot, but I’ve used svg instead of pdf (I haven’t printed it yet). The result is acceptable, but I found some another difference, that I would like to remove. In case of need I can fix it in Incscape, but I would like to know that I didn’t some mistake in settings.
There is some ground done in the design and it is visible like is shown below (place that I mean is marked by green circle).
If Geber files were plotted, Image was shown fine for me. (Place that I mean is also marked in green - maybe I should use different color.)
But If I plotted the file into svg, there was different result. (Marked red, because I would like to get result comparable with Geber somehow.)
Is there some settings, that I missed in plot options? There are some other formats, (Postscript, DXF, HPGL), but I don’t know how to edit them in case of need, in some cases I even don’t know that shorts. Should I use any different fo rmat? How can be achieved same result in both cases?
Threre was no possibility of pdf plot. Did I use correct menu? (in PcbNew File >> Plot >> SVG >> Plot)
If it was me… I would just plot them as gerbers and use the gerbview tool in kicad to view the resulting gerbers.
Do this just as if you were preparing your output files to send to the board house (if you are using one)
This is an IMPORTANT step in checking your output files for any errors before submitting to be made. Look at the various texts in the silkscreen layers and make sure you are happy with what you see.
You may have a reason to try and print them in the manner you are using such as if you are making your own boards via photo method or iron on transfer, so if that is the case you may want to research how to use the gerbers to do that.
I think you will find that the gerbers are correct as far as the errors you highlighted above.
That does indeed look a bit strange. You are using the old stable KiCad, so I am not entirely sure how it worked back then. But make sure that the zone is actually filled before plotting. (I don’t know if it is filled in your screenshots if you have set it to hide the actual zone, when actually filled. [if that makes sense])
Thanks all for replies.
I finally decided to repair the printed board with fix, it is good for my home use. And I will be more careful with zones as Nickoe said in next design to achieve good behaviour and look (all layers are shown now, I’ve just refilled zones according recomendation). But although there are some differences between two plots from the same board into different formats. Do you think, that this behaviour should be written to someone as bug? If so, where I have to send further info? Or do you think that developers knows about this issue so there is not necessary to send the information to them?
The developers are not too concerned about the printing functionality, so reporting bugs against that is probably not going to be fixed any time soon… at least not if the bug is from the wx side. But please report any bugs on the bug tracker, https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad.
