ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

On Jun 15, 9:06*pm, "Leland C. Scott" wrote:
Great. Thanks for the input. One other thing. I have a buddy who was looking
for a free Gerber editor for making minor artwork changes. He had some
boards done outside and needs to make some changes to fix a few boo-boos
when he did the design. You know of any? He only has Windows. I run Windows
and Linux so either would work. I could make the changes for him.


....
Well, I'm using ViewMate from PentaLogix. I don't do anything very
complex with it, basically just view my FreePCB outputs to make sure
everything is OK. I also use it to print the Gerbers for assembly
documentation and to make my own boards at home--I like the immediacy
of being able to make a board in an hour or two. ViewMate's free...
BUT it won't let you save changes. You have to spring for the upgrade
to ViewMaster EZ for $50 to be able to save (and do some other
things). There may be free solutions, but since ViewMate does what I
need, I haven't gone looking for them.

For fixing boo-boos, I'd a lot rather go back to the PC design program
and make the changes there, rather than hand-editing Gerbers, but I
suppose there are good reasons to modify the Gerbers directly. I do
recall some hassles trying to get my layout program do what I wanted
with a solder mask recently, and was really tempted to try to modify
the Gerbers!

Cheers,
Tom

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

On 16 June, 05:06, "Leland C. Scott" wrote:
Great. Thanks for the input. One other thing. I have a buddy who was looking
for a free Gerber editor for making minor artwork changes. He had some
boards done outside and needs to make some changes to fix a few boo-boos
when he did the design. You know of any? He only has Windows. I run Windows
and Linux so either would work. I could make the changes for him.

The Pulsonix software I use has can import Gerber files and edit them,
but it isn't free.

Leon

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

Tom;

I understand your points. My buddy does not have access to the software that
was used for the layout. That's why he wanted the Gerber editor.

What I have found so far is a free (GPL'd) Gerber file viewer, no editor.

http://gerbv.sourceforge.net/

There are both Windows and Linux versions available for down load. It has a
few bugs but so far as a viewer it works remarkably well.

--
Regards;

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

"Brilliance is typically the act of an
individual, but incredible stupidity
can usually be traced to an
organization."

Jon Bentley

"K7ITM" wrote in message
...
On Jun 15, 9:06 pm, "Leland C. Scott" wrote:
Great. Thanks for the input. One other thing. I have a buddy who was
looking
for a free Gerber editor for making minor artwork changes. He had some
boards done outside and needs to make some changes to fix a few boo-boos
when he did the design. You know of any? He only has Windows. I run
Windows
and Linux so either would work. I could make the changes for him.


....
Well, I'm using ViewMate from PentaLogix. I don't do anything very
complex with it, basically just view my FreePCB outputs to make sure
everything is OK. I also use it to print the Gerbers for assembly
documentation and to make my own boards at home--I like the immediacy
of being able to make a board in an hour or two. ViewMate's free...
BUT it won't let you save changes. You have to spring for the upgrade
to ViewMaster EZ for $50 to be able to save (and do some other
things). There may be free solutions, but since ViewMate does what I
need, I haven't gone looking for them.

For fixing boo-boos, I'd a lot rather go back to the PC design program
and make the changes there, rather than hand-editing Gerbers, but I
suppose there are good reasons to modify the Gerbers directly. I do
recall some hassles trying to get my layout program do what I wanted
with a solder mask recently, and was really tempted to try to modify
the Gerbers!

Cheers,
Tom

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

"JeffM" wrote in message
...
When someone gets hot to trot for the Cadsoft product,
I like to remind him that he may find the same situation:
*His* work product tied up in **their** proprietary format:

Boo! Hiss! Kick the dog. Well the dog isn't to blame , maybe not a good idea
to kick it.

Check this out.

http://gerbv.sourceforge.net/

http://pcb.gpleda.org/news.html#20090202

http://www.gpleda.org/index.html

I haven't tried out most of these tools. It would be interesting to get
somebody's comments who has used them for a project.


--
Regards;

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

"Brilliance is typically the act of an
individual, but incredible stupidity
can usually be traced to an
organization."

Jon Bentley

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

What I have found so far is a free (GPL'd) Gerber file viewer, no editor.

How much editing do you want to do?

Gerber files are just text. You can edit with a normal text editor.
As long as you have a good viewer you can see if your edits did what
you want.

--
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

Hal;

May have to reroute a few traces that cross a significant length of the
board to fix some design errors. I haven't looked at the raw Gerber files to
see how easy doing the editing by hand word be to do.


--
Regards;

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

"The most reliable components are
the ones you leave out."

By Gordon Bell, father of the
minicomputer at DEC.

"Hal Murray" wrote in message
...

What I have found so far is a free (GPL'd) Gerber file viewer, no editor.

How much editing do you want to do?

Gerber files are just text. You can edit with a normal text editor.
As long as you have a good viewer you can see if your edits did what
you want.

--
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

"Leon" wrote in message
...

The Pulsonix software I use has can import Gerber files and edit them,
but it isn't free.

You have a rough idea as to the cost for the bare-bones PCB core? I didn't
see any prices on the web sites from a quick look..


--
Regards;

Leland C. Scott
KC8LDO

"The most reliable components are
the ones you leave out."

By Gordon Bell, father of the
minicomputer at DEC.

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

On Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:40:28 -0700 (PDT), JeffM
wrote:

Tim Wescott
Reverse the "Express" and the "PCB" and you'll find a really nice
little company that will take Gerber files and make boards for you.
Eagle PCB is free for small two-layer boards, includes
schematic capture, and works well
once you get your brain wrapped around their way of doing things.

Leland C. Scott wrote:
I'm going to check them out. I do some small one-off PCB's
to test some ideas out. I would like to have the Gerber files
when I'm done in case I want to incorporate it in a larger design.

When someone gets hot to trot for the Cadsoft product,
I like to remind him that he may find the same situation:
*His* work product tied up in **their** proprietary format:

The Downside of EAGLE aka ''The EAGLE virus'' by Markus Zingg
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....nger-be-opened

Poxy hell mate. Have you never heard of tinyURL?

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

On Mon, 15 Jun 2009 21:40:28 -0700, JeffM wrote:

Tim Wescott
Reverse the "Express" and the "PCB" and you'll find a really nice
little company that will take Gerber files and make boards for you.
Eagle PCB is free for small two-layer boards, includes schematic
capture, and works well
once you get your brain wrapped around their way of doing things.

Leland C. Scott wrote:
I'm going to check them out. I do some small one-off PCB's to test some
ideas out. I would like to have the Gerber files when I'm done in case I
want to incorporate it in a larger design.

When someone gets hot to trot for the Cadsoft product, I like to remind
him that he may find the same situation: *His* work product tied up in
**their** proprietary format:

The Downside of EAGLE aka ''The EAGLE virus'' by Markus Zingg
http://groups.google.com/group/comp....se_frm/thread/
f794e82d26b59e18/d7cf4149edb93ac7?q=*-*-website+reuse+paying.*+*-I-will-
switch+cracked-*+*.would.not.help.*+zzz+after-*-*-version-*+copied
+*.*.unlock.*.designs+*-*-*-*-exchange-*-*-*-*-third-party+reused+qq+*-*-
single-bit-*-*-*-*+useless+*-*-*-projects-could-no-longer-be-opened

Ah, I forgot about that issue.

So, any _other_ PCB layout program that coughs up a Gerber. Or be
careful of what you copy into your schematics.

--
www.wescottdesign.com

ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?
 

In article ,
"Leland C. Scott" writes:
Hal;

May have to reroute a few traces that cross a significant length of the
board to fix some design errors. I haven't looked at the raw Gerber files to
see how easy doing the editing by hand word be to do.

It's not the length that matters but the number of segments.

I didn't mean to suggest that it would be simple. It would take
a bit of trial and error to get going. You would probably have
to find some specs for the gerber file format.

I'd probably do the routing on paper and then transfer it to
the gerber file. The important point is that you can use the
viewer to show what you have so you know if you got it right.

--
These are my opinions, not necessarily my employer's. I hate spam.