[lug] PCB Layout Software? Gerber RS-274X

[Stephen Queen]

A gerber file is simply a plot file for a laser plotter. Trying to reverse
the plot file to an editable file used by a pcb layout program would be
very difficult. Electrical and design rules would be impossible to check on
such a reverse plot. When a circuit designer builds a printed circuit
board, they usually start by doing the schematic, then running the
electrical checks on it. The second step is doing the layout. When the
layout is complete, then the design rules are checked (spacing, clearances,
etc). The final step is generating the gerber files. The file extensions
are fairly arbitrary, and are different from one design package to another.

Your best bet would be to try and create a schematic, then the layout could
be manually copied by looking at the gerbers, and trying to duplicate them.
I have done this using the drawings provided by demo designs from vendors
trying to sell their chip sets. There they provided a schematic that I
simply copied into my schematic capture program.

I have seen commercial gerber editors, but even they were clunky, and could
only be used for the simplest of edits. They use to require you to purchase
the complete package to get the editor though.

Good Luck.


On Wed, Jun 25, 2014 at 1:54 PM, <stimits at comcast.net> wrote:

> This particular application looks like it has what I need, but fails to
> import any of the existing gerber files and does not show any errors to
> indicate what the problem is.
>  ----- Original Message -----
> From: Orion Poplawski <orion at cora.nwra.com>
> To: Boulder (Colorado) Linux Users Group -- General Mailing List <
> lug at lug.boulder.co.us>
> Sent: Tue, 24 Jun 2014 21:38:52 -0000 (UTC)
> Subject: Re: [lug] PCB Layout Software? Gerber RS-274X
>  On 06/24/2014 01:56 PM, stimits at comcast.net wrote:
> > I need to open some circuit board designs in linux, and although there
> seem to
> > be design programs out there I'm having problems finding one that reads
> the
> > particular files I have. The files are listed as RS-274X format, and have
> > these extensions on file names:
> > *.drl
> > *.pho
> > *.lst
> > *.ppm
> > *.rep
> > Does anyone here know of or have a favorite PC board program that can
> directly
> > import or use these? I'm using fedora if that helps.
> > Thanks!
>  # yum info pcb
> Loaded plugins: auto-update-debuginfo, langpacks, tmprepo
> Available Packages
> Name : pcb
> Arch : x86_64
> Version : 0.20110918
> Release : 12.fc20
> Size : 1.3 M
> Repo : fedora/20/x86_64
> Summary : An interactive printed circuit board editor
> URL : http://pcb.sourceforge.net
> License : GPLv2
> Description : PCB is an interactive printed circuit board editor.
> : PCB includes a rats nest feature, design rule checking, and can
> provide
> : industry standard RS-274-X (Gerber), NC drill, and centroid
> data (X-Y data)
> : output for use in the board fabrication and assembly process.
> PCB offers
> : high end features such as an autorouter and trace optimizer
> which can
> : tremendously reduce layout time.
>  ?
>  --
> Orion Poplawski
> Technical Manager 303-415-9701 x222
> NWRA, Boulder/CoRA Office FAX: 303-415-9702
> 3380 Mitchell Lane orion at nwra.com
> Boulder, CO 80301 http://www.nwra.com
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