What is KiCad?

KiCad function introduction

With the schematic editor, you can create your designs without limitations. The schematic symbol library and built-in schematic symbol editor help you get started quickly.

Make professional PCB layouts with up to 32 layers. KiCad now has a push and push router that is capable of routing differential pairs and interactively adjusting trace lengths.

Generate Gerber File from KiCad

1) Open KiCad. Go to File -> Open Project... and select the project to open. Click the Open button.

2) Click the PCB Layout Editor button


3)Go to File -> Drawing, or find the Drawing icon on the main menu. This will open the plot window

4) Output Directory field - Select the output directory for your Gerber files. Create a new directory so you can create a ZIP archive from it later.
Gerber Options Group - Make sure Use Protel file extension and Generate Gerber files are selected, and Use extended X2 format is deselected, as this will effectively convert the Gerber file's format to X2 which is not supported by all manufacturers' devices.


5) Click the Generate Drill Files button. The Generate Drill File window will pop up. Select Suppress leading zeros and Minimal header options. We also recommend that you select the option to have PTH and NPTH holes in a single file, otherwise KiCad will split plated and non-plated holes into two drill files, and if one is missing, your board will have missing holes. Click the Generate Drill File button.


6)The location where the drill file has now been generated will be displayed under the message window. Click the close button to return to the previous window.


7)Click the Plot button to generate a Gerber file for the layer. Click the Close button.


8)After importing all the layers into Gerber Viewer, you can view each layer individually.

PCB manufacturing and PCB Assembly in AiPCBA

AiPCBA is China's first online PCBA flexible intelligent manufacturing cloud platform, providing electronic product R&D companies with one-stop prototype production and volume production manufacturing services for BOM sourcing, PCB manufacturing, and SMT assembly.

All PCBs in AiPCBA are produced based on UL and ISO certification standards. All our normal specification PCBs are strictly obeying to IPC-A-6011/6012 Class 2 latest version and IPC-A-600 Class 2 latest version.

AiPCBA's prototype production lines all use EUROPLACER high-precision SMT production equipment and use IOT Internet of Things technology to make SMT production equipment highly coordinated with MES system, which can complete the processing needs of customer product PCBA prototype with high quality. Specialized in providing services for you who need flexible production custom production lines, so that you no longer have to pay high costs for prototype and small batch production.
Contact us Now for the PCB & PCBA quotation in AiPCBA！

How to Get the Instant Quote in AiPCBA

BOM quote: AiPCBA's self-developed BOM quotation system can identify component information within 30 seconds, and analyze and quote market prices. And our BOM quotation system does not have strict requirements on the BOM format, all of which are based on the development of our strong R&D team, and play an extremely important role in our thousands of BOM price confirmations.

PCB Assembly Quote: Based on AiPCBA's PCB and BOM online quote system, we have also developed the calculation formula for assembly costs accordingly and combined these three quotation systems to form our complete one-stop PCBA quotation. As long as you upload the Gerber file and BOM list, our system will give you a complete PCBA quotation within 30 seconds.

AiPCBA also accepts Requests for a quotation by email, we are glad to receive your attachments (Gerber files, BOM list, etc. ) Pls feel free to contact us at sales@aipcba.com.