Hi everyone Sevarin again asking if anyone knows about any setting that will allow you when you print out the PCB onto a sheet of paper. If there is a way to show the boarder of your PCB around the symbols that you have put on it. so like you know how you have screw holes around in like 4 ish corners. How can you get a boarder printed around it. We were told to use the edge cut layer but when we use it it just covers the whole area in a big blob when you go to print it. the only work around we found was with the outline and creating a perfect square outline to get it to show a boarder around it. I am just wondering if there is a way to properly show the edge of the board instead of just a outline. if not then thats what happens.
What exactly is on the Edge.Cuts layer? Is it the outline only, or is it a filled shape? If it is a filled shape that may be why you’re getting a big blob.
Sounds like you want to print the Edge.Cuts layer together with the (front) silkscreen, but it will depend on how you made your mounting holes. Do they have an outline on the silkscreen layer?
You could experiment with generating Gerbers and printing from Gerbview, and also try “plotting” to PDF and print that, but I have no reason to believe the result would be any different than printing from pcbnew. Good luck.
this is what i currently have that purple border is the outline i had to draw… just to get the edge around the board…
https://imgur.com/a/VMiYCvm
this is the edge cuts layer… and when you try to print a paper page with it it becomes this…
This is with the edge cuts layer off and with out the outline. so it basiclly makes it look like the whole paper is the circut board even though you can see the mounting holes them selves right? so I’m not sure what to say on that.
Apparently i cant upload more then one picture yey so the imgur link works better hopefully.
Have you selected the Edge.Cuts layer in the print dialog? There is also a checkbox for “Exclude PCB edge layer” which I leave unchecked. P.S. Thanks for adding screenshots. It is almost impossible to understand what someone is doing otherwise.
Is yellow your edge cuts layer or is that a copper layer?
If it is the edge cuts layer then you used the wrong tool to draw on it. It would also mean you are on an outdated version of kicad (version 5.1.4 converts filled polygons to lines to avoid this problem)
To Dale: the edge cuts layer is selected in the print dialog box and thats what gives me the big black box. Even if i leave the Exclude pcb edge layer unchecked it seems to do the same thing. Wether or not I select the edge cuts layer on or not.
To Poeschir
The yellow is the edge cuts layer. I didnt even know there was a copper layer to be honest. I’m still learning this program and trying to learn as much as I can so I can get good marks I am on Ki-Cad 5.1.4 and it was the filled polygon option that I used to make that edge cuts layer. I will give that part a read… That is a very good link you sent there for sure cause that Helps explain a lot of those layer functions. Although, I need to read more in depth to see if it will fix the issue or not. Heres some more screen shots too.
Also Dale your picture didn’t show for me so I am not able to see it. Would you be able to send it via imgur? you dont need an account so that makes it more fun. thank you.
I haven’t tried, but I suspect your problem is the solid polygon. Try recreating it using line segments. Also Chris Gammel’s “Blinky” tutorials are great to see the basics.
My screenshot was basically the same as yours. I put an Imgur URL in the body of my post and it viewed ok for me immediately after. However now I don’t see the pic either! One day I will figure out how to properly add a pic to a post.
Yey I’m not the only one who is having problems with stuff not showing up. Yet for what ever reason today the pictures are showing up :\ who knew? Blinky’s tutorials? where are those on this site or is it a you tube thing?
so the imgur link works better hopefully.
I am on Ki-Cad 5.1.4 and it was the filled polygon option that I used to make that edge cuts layer. I will give that part a read… That is a very good link you sent there for sure cause that Helps explain a lot of those layer functions. Although, I need to read more in depth to see if it will fix the issue or not. Heres some more screen shots too.