Newbie
Joined: 22/12/2023
Location: AustraliaPosts: 5
| Posted: 02:25pm 23 Dec 2023 |
Hi,
First time poster but have been using KICAD for over 10 years but I'm nowhere near an expert.
I'm currently running on Linux Mint using the KICAD snap package and its all going good if that's any help for Debian.
For a single layer board with components on the top and tracks on the bottom your plot looks fine. You are correct that, by default, the PCB is viewed from the top down as if the board were made of glass. In version 7 the default top copper track (F.Cu for front copper) layer is shown in red and the back (B.Cu for back copper) tracks are in blue. Anything that has both top and bottom copper will be yellow.
As your using the library footprints and they have been designed for two layer boards they have both top and bottom copper tracks and so the through hole pads are all yellow. If you produce a single (bottom only) layer board then you just need to use the B.Cu layer gerber file.
If you wanted you can use the board setup (PCB icon on the tool bar next to the floppy save icon) to remove the top layers in the board stack up but I don't think its worth it.
You would normally produce gerber files for PCB manufacture by using the plot icon where the popup window allows you to select the layers you what. KICAD will produce a file for each layer - a layer being effectively a separate PCB manufacturing process
so there's a front silk screen file, front solder mask file, a back copper file and so forth. You have to click on a separate button in the popup to produce the drill file.
I have never used isolation routing, but when I have used a router to produce mechanical parts I have created the tool path gcode from a DXF file using a CAM program (ESTLCAM in my case).
KICAD can directly output (plot in KICAD-ees) DXF files (and SVG files). When you click the plot icon; at the top left of the plot pop up window it says plot format with a drop down box. By default its set to gerber, but clicking on the drop down you can select DXF or SVG (among others).
I would expect - again I haven't tried this directly - that the DXF plot could be loaded into the CAM software and a track outline selected as an 'on the line' route path to produce an isolation cut. The DXF would be as you see it on the screen so would need to be mirrored before you do the routing as you will be cutting with the bottom of the board upper most. I think ESTLCAM can flip the DXF file on import but as I say I have not done isolation routing as I go the gerber, zip file SEEED Studio / PCBWay / JLBPCB etc path (all not sponsored - I use SEEED around 5 to 7 times a year for different jobs and they have never let me down. That's just fact, not an advertisement!). It looks like your board is under 100mm square so you could get 10 for US$5 plus shipping from SEEED. The shipping is way more that the cost of the board production in my experience.
BTW there is an option in the plot pop up window to mirror the output if you select a SVG file if that helps any?
I hope this (apparently rather long) ramble helps out.
All the best from WA.