Any free gerber to dxf translators available anywhere!

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setmenu

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Joined 2002
#1
I have been searching for gerber translators but alas, no luck.

Perhaps I am being stupid, but all I want to do is convert some
Gerber's into something that can be used by a third party to produce laser prints so I can try using the 'toner' method of pcb
production.

I would rather not spend lots of $$$ on something that will get
little use.

I did find one app that looked promising called excelcam but after following the license install instructions could not get it to load:bawling: :bawling: :bawling: :xeye:

Any thoughts?


Setmenu🙁
 
#3
Hi Magura
I could not convert a gerber to any other file type.
I wanted to convert to dxf as I have a number of apps that can
work with that file type.

I have now found a program that can do conversions called
Gerberview:

http://www.softwarecompanions.com/gerbview.html

The full functional demo is for 30 days and the app costs $79.00

So whilst not free, I do at least have some time to test out
the pcb making process, and if things prove fruitful I could
upgrade.

prior to the above discovery all I was finding was software costing
many hundreds or thousands of dollars, it was really beginning to
annoy me.

I would of course still be very happy to find something for free!


Cheers

setmenu
 
#7
Magura said:
Will the demo translate into DXF ?

Magura🙂
Click to expand...

At the time of posting I have only had time to do one conversion, and yes the demo does convert into DXF.

But, the conversion seemed to convert the gerber lines into
paths without the width information contained in the
original gerber:xeye:

If I recollect I think the Linkcad demo converted the width info ok,
into 45meg dxf files!

Magura, why don't you download the the gerberview demo too?
we could compare notes, I am sure you are far more experienced than me with this stuff..


Cheers

Setmenu
 
#8
I have just done a few more tests.

The problem with line width was caused in my instance by
outputting to gerber [d] with a mix of polygon and poly lines from the original pcb drawing file.
This is most probably a quirk of my ED app.

I can now convert to DXF files with all the dimensions seemingly intact.
But.. the resultant DXF still read differently on various apps.
Thus far one cannot seem to open the gerberview exported
file at all and others show a broken and distorted model.

If I first open the gerberview dxf in illustrator it looks fine,
solid colour fills and no distortion.
Then if again I save this file as an illustrator generated DXF
file it seems be ok when read by apps that show solid shading,
but those that open the file as unfilled paths show broken
lines with missing paths :xeye: :dodgy:

So thus far it seems I can now at least transform the gerbers into
files more commonly used by others.

Ah ha! Just opened the original gerberview exported DXF in Corel
Draw and then saved[exported] it again and this time it
opens as a correct unfilled line drawing in Intellicad!
The original file also opened in filled form ok in the old Autocad R14.


So it seems each app interprets the data differently:dodgy: :xeye:

Hmmm.


Setmenu
 
#9
Any luck with this.

I downloaded and ran LinkCad and it converts alright into DXF that can be brought into AutoCAD, but what comes in are just solids in the correct pattern (pretty much) but not lines that outline the solid, like in the gerber.

Anyway, LinkCad is the only one I had success with.

Let me know how you guys made out ...

David 😎
 
#10
DSchmidt said:
Any luck with this.

I downloaded and ran LinkCad and it converts alright into DXF that can be brought into AutoCAD, but what comes in are just solids in the correct pattern (pretty much) but not lines that outline the solid, like in the gerber.

Anyway, LinkCad is the only one I had success with.

Let me know how you guys made out ...

David 😎
Click to expand...

I tried the LinkCad demo a while back, it costs quite a few $$$$
to purchase the full app, so I wanted to finder a somewhat
cheaper alternative as use would only be occasional.

I have not expanded on my experiments with Gerberview since posting here originally but was pretty happy with the results even though
the resultant files would read rather differently in different drawing apps.



Have you tried the Gerberview demo?


Setmenu
 
#12
I Have recently revisited this 'problem' and achieved some good
results.
Firstly check out Gerbermagic:

http://bronzware.com/GerbMagic/index.htm

This app converts to eps pdf dxf etc.
I have been using the free demo and have not had any luck with the dxf.[maybe this feature is disabled in the demo.]
If I needed the conversion facility more often I would probably pay for the thing, it is not expensive.

What I have been doing is a bit long winded but useful.
Firstly open the gerber in Gerbermagic.
Save as PDF.
I then open the PDF in illustrator and use the outline stoke command
to add thickness to single trace widths.[if needed]
Save the to PDF again in illustrator, For use with Rhino 3.
My Illustrator copy is an old one.
I did try to save straight to DXF but the resultant files do not read well in other drawing apps.

I can now do anything want with my Gerber's!



Mark
 
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