gEDA-dev: gerber importer/panelizer

[Erik Winn]

On Tuesday 13 May 2008 10:33:28 am Julian wrote:
> Erik,
>     Sorry for the delay in posting....I only get the daily digest of
> geda-dev.

 No problem - I only get to this late in the day anyway, I appreciate any 
response.

> gerbv --export=rs274x --translate=0,0 --translate=3.45,0
> --output=panelized.gbx  board1.gbx  board2.gbx 

 Thats very cool - I looking around a bit for docs on this. Since I have code 
that gets the basic dimension already, I might be able to come up with a 
something like gerb_merge's random placement this way.

 I have another question - what is happening with libgerbv, I understand that 
it has been broken out?

> Also, you mentioned needing to translate between Excellon and RS274X,
> and gerbv will do that now too even through the GUI.

 Yep - I saw that, very nice.

> Also, missing G01 codes shouldn't bother gerbv at all, since it default
> to linear interpolation during parsing.  As an added bonus, using gerbv
> to re-export your RS274X files should clean them up to 100% valid code.
> Please let us know if you find any problems with the output...it's still
> a relatively new feature to gerbv.

 mmm, I'm wondering if I wasn't clear about the G01 codes - what I was saying 
was that most Gerbers that I see here do not use them in the coordinates, and 
I see output from a lot of different software. I realize that gerbv can 
handle them and that they are technically legal, but I am wondering if 
gerbv's out put may be problematic for other software that is used to them 
being omitted. I most commonly see G01 on a single line like a single set or 
reset command. Just a thought, the specifications are not very clear about 
this.

Cheers,
-- erik
--
Erik Winn
BatchPCB.com
erik at batchpcb.com