PCB Builder: Soldermask File is Empty in the Compressed File Error

[Kristof_2649]

If you are seeing the following Soldermask file is empty error in PCB Builder/DKRed PCB upload service like as follows:

If you are using Apple products it might be due to what is called a Resource Fork in your Zip archive.

There are a number of files included in the _MACOSX folder that are redundant and confuse the upload tool. The entire _MACOSX folder needs to get removed from the zip archive.

The tricky part is if you are viewing this archive from within Mac OSX you won’t normally see this folder, it is hidden.

They’re files with the same name as your zip archive but have a dot underscore before them.

Here are instructions on ways to remove the resource fork from your archive.

Too Long, Didn’t Read: One easy way to create zip files without this resource fork would be to use a third party compression archive tool.

[andrew.nixon]

I’ve been dealing with this problem for the past few days. I never would have thought that my Mac’s zip tool was the culprit, but indeed it was!! Following the instructions in the link solved the problem for me.