How to Generate Gerber File in Kicad 6.0 EDA

In this short instructable ,

we will learn

How to generate Gerber files from Kicad 6.0 EDA that you can send to a PCB manufacturer (1st Part)

or etch your own PCB at home (2nd Part).

The Gerber format is an open ASCII vector format for printed circuit board (PCB) designs.

It is the de facto standard used by PCB industry software to describe the printed circuit board images: copper layers, solder mask, legend, drill data, etc

This is part of our youtube course on Building a 4 Channel LM35 preamplifier for Arduino or other Microcontrollers

We have a website too Building Preamplifier for LM35 temperature sensor

Just Kicad 6.0 EDA

There are two ways to generate Gerber Files on Kicad 6.0 after you have completed PCB Design

1) Go to File -> Fabrication Outputs ->Gerbers

2) Go to File -> Plot

After you select Gerber,

Another window called Plot will open up as shown in the above image.

1. Select Plot Format as Gerber ,As we want to create a Gerber file, You can also plot to other formats like PDF ,DXF etc
2. Select the Output Directory in which you want Kicad to store the generated the Gerber files.
3. Select which layers you want to fabricate on the Include Layers check boxes
4. Press Plot to Generate the Gerber files in the selected Directory

You can create drill files in two ways

1) Go to File -> Fabrication Outputs ->Drill Files

2) Go to File -> Plot, then select Generate Drill Files at the lower right corner of plot Window

Just select Gerber under Map File Format and Press Generate Drill Files

After generating the Gerber and Drill Files,

Zip the files and send to a PCB fabrication facility

If you are building the PCB yourself at home using toner transfer method,

We can use other options on the Plot Window,like plot the PCB in PDF.

This will generate a PDF file which you can print it on a Photo paper and use it for toner transfer method.

When Printing make sure to use 1:1 scalling

For drilling at home manually ,there is no need to generate a drill file.

Instead you can generate a Drill Map file in PDF which shows where to drill and which drill size to use.

Click on Generate Map File Button,to create a PDF map file