Gerber export - wrong file name and import to aisler

Hello,

I’m exporting my projects to Gerber for the manufacturing and I’m facing 2 issues on one over three projects:

  • the export file name is not the name of the project (a suffix _PCB_857124570 is added)
  • when this project is imported to aisler, the shape of the board is no longer rectangle but a trapezoid

I checked the file in Gerber viewer, they look good.
I had a quick look at fritzing source code, and don’t see any reason for that.

I’m actually exporting using 0.9.3 version (I know it’s an old one but it uses to work well)

Does someone have an idea ?

How are you doing the export to gerber? File->Order a pcb (which I have never used!) or File->Export->For production->Extended Gerber (which is my usual method and looks like this:

capture

on Win10. No additions, and I can change the file names as I choose.

It also has bugs in gerber export (although they show up in a gerber viewer usually) in gerber export. If you upload the .fzz file for one of the sketches that doesn’t work I’ll do the export in both 0.9.3 and 0.9.8 and see what I get.

Peter

hello Peter, thanks for the feed back.

I use the File>Export>For production> Extended Gerber (I haven’t seen the other export method).

To be clearer about the suffix, my project name ends with 5.3.1:

Had you ever had it ? any idea ?

I don’t see this number in the fz… files. It’s not a unix timestamp.

The only thing I can think of is something is adding the _857124570 to the file name. Here I made a simple sketch and saved it as resistor-test.fzz

resistor-test.fzz (1.9 KB)

Then I loaded resistor-test.fzz (on 0.9.3b because that is what you are using) and exported it as a gerber. As expected the file names in the export don’t have any trailing numbers just the .fzz file name:

This is all on Win10.

So the trailing number must be being added to the saved .fzz file name by something, but I don’t know by what.

Peter

Thx for sharing! Realy interesting information!

Did you upload the Fritzing File (*.fzz) to Aisler? Or did you upload the Gerber files exported with Fritzing? It is usually best to upload the *.fzz file. Aisler knows how to read it, and they will report issues to me.

Local export before zipping and upload to aisler. With other persons, we decoupled the 2 cases mentioned.

The board shape issue comes from the board design in the svg file (unclosed path + rotation).

The suffix issue is minor. It only requires to me, to rename files manually before storing them in the VCS system and zipping to Aisler in order to keep things clean (personal opinion).

Fixed the export file name issue. I had 2 boards (more or less the same size) one hiding the other one. For the export I choose the visible one on top, and the export tool probably add a board “id” to the file name.
I discovered the second board, exporting to Gerber again and again. The file name changed but always with the same two prefixes. Then I understood the prefix changed according to the side (top/bottom) I select the board to export.

This issue can indicates a mistake to someone else.

I think the second board came from a copy/paste or an old beginner error when added board “as a part” instead of choosing its image.

@vanepp and others more involved in Fritzing code, don’t loose time thinking at the reason for multiple boards. But if you want to make possible to have multiple pcb for one single schematic, I vote for it !

How did you select a side of the board to export? I just tried by selecting bottom layer only in pcb view, but the gerber export correctly exported both sides as I expected (although this was 0.9.8 not 0.9.3b?)

Peter

The easiest way to reproduce, is to duplicate the board (copy paste) and then to select one or the other. You can swap sides or just move one a little to see them both.

I think there are different meanings of “top” here. @spassignat meant the top board in the pcb view, because there were 2 stacked on top of each other. @vanepp top versus bottom in the pcb view. The swapping sides just makes the other board come to the top, where it can be selected for export.

The implication of the symptoms, is that Fritzing modifies the export name when more than one board exists in the pcb view. Probably whether they are accidentally stacked, or are deliberately side by side. If memory serves, Fritzing can only export a single board at a time. I think though that both boards can be exported, just one at time. Select one, export it. Select the other and export that. Likely with the modified names as seen in the previous posts.

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Good call @microMerlin ! That is exactly what is happening. While I knew we can panelize boards I have never done it and that is indeed what is happening here. I duplicated a simple circuit then exported first one then the other as gerbers

and the version numbers appear on the gerber output files. Learned something else I didn’t know before!

Peter

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