Gerber file save option "Exclude PCB edge layer from other layers" generating "Warning this file has no D-Code definition" error message.

[Joe Silva]

KiCad Team,

When "Exclude PCB edge layer from other layers" option is selected for creating Gerber files from KiCad Plot function, a warning message is generated when Gerber files are read back with GerbView.

"Warning this file has no D-Code definition. It is perhaps an old RS274D file. Therefore the size of the items is undefined"

This error message is observed on KiCad nightly release kicad-r14384.4135f0c0e-x86_64.exe from 2019-10-31 and previous releases.

I am not entirely sure this is a bug or just the way KiCad works when the "Exclude PCB edge layer from other layers" option is selected for generating Gerber files.

I have attached picture of the Gerber Plot settings page and the warning message from GerbView when files are read back.

many thanks for looking into this.
Joe Silva

[Ian McInerney (imcinerney)]

Joe, it is more helpful for us to have the version information from About KiCad -> Copy Version Information rather than the exe file name (it is sometimes hard to read those filenames, but the version string from inside KiCad we can read easily). For instance, based on that filename we can't tell if this is in 5.1.4 or 5.99.

This sounds like something reported earlier here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1848929. And it ended up being an overzealous warning from GerbView.

[jean-pierre charras (jp-charras)]

This message is fully deprecated.
Please ignore it. It will be removed later.

[Joe Silva (silvajoe65)]

Hi Ian, KiCad Team,

I traced the GerbView error message problem to 2 of the Gerber Plot produced files when the Plot function "Exclude PCB edge layer from other layers" option is selected. When GerbView tries to load the Back Mask gerber file or the Front Mask gerber file it results in the error message "Warning this file has no D-Code definition ...."

I show below the KiCad information I think you are requesting. If there is additional information you need please let me know. I am still a bit new to KiCad usage so I may not always describe things in a proper way for the KiCad Code Team.

Also as I stated in my original note I see this error message in the last several nightly releases so it is not unique to the nightly KiCad version that was released on 10-31-2019.

I did check https://bugs.launchpad.net/kicad/+bug/1848929 which seems similar but that bug was deemed fixed. In my case I see the issue whenever B_Mask.gbr or F_Mask.gbr type files are being loaded by GerbView. The other generated Gerber files load without any other error messages and the overall problem only happens when the "Exclude PCB edge layer from other layers" option is selected in the KiCad Plot function. If I do not select this option the entire KiCad generated Gerber file set loads without any errors.

I see the problem on both my Windows 7 and Windows 10 machines

many thanks ....Joe Silva
==========================================================================================
Application: GerbView
Version: (5.99.0-278-g4135f0c0e), release build
Libraries:
    wxWidgets 3.0.4
    libcurl/7.66.0 OpenSSL/1.1.1d (Schannel) zlib/1.2.11 brotli/1.0.7 libidn2/2.2.0 libpsl/0.21.0 (+libidn2/2.1.1) nghttp2/1.39.2
Platform: Windows 8 (build 9200), 64-bit edition, 64 bit, Little endian, wxMSW
Build Info:
    Build date: Oct 31 2019 22:07:44
    wxWidgets: 3.0.4 (wchar_t,wx containers,compatible with 2.8)
    Boost: 1.71.0
    OpenCASCADE Community Edition: 6.9.1
    Curl: 7.66.0
    Compiler: GCC 9.2.0 with C++ ABI 1013

Build settings:
    KICAD_SCRIPTING=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_MODULES=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_PYTHON3=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON=ON
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_WXPYTHON_PHOENIX=OFF
    KICAD_SCRIPTING_ACTION_MENU=ON
    BUILD_GITHUB_PLUGIN=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCE=ON
    KICAD_USE_OCC=OFF
    KICAD_SPICE=ON
==========================================================================================

[KiCad Janitor (kicad-janitor)]

Fixed in revision c59fa1b672fe639c657252dd21b1537c8c6ceb77
https://git.launchpad.net/kicad/patch/?id=c59fa1b672fe639c657252dd21b1537c8c6ceb77