ExpressPCB to Gerber file converter?

Yup. You can pay Express PCB for the file. (No utility) $75 the last time I bought one.

W4ZCB

That's not going to happen. I know I can get some reverse engineering software that will import the layout as a graphic then trace over it using the PCB layout software to generate standard Gerber files. I'm looking for something easy and I'm not paying them $75 a pop for each small board to convert.

I also found out there maybe some utilities out, still looking, there that can convert from an exported PDF, or EPS file, to a Gerber format too. Getting a PDF printer driver is easy. Use the driver when printing out a copy of the board layout.

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.

Use Advanced Circuits. Their PCB Artist software is much better than Express PCB's (it's actually a special version of Easy-PC) and you get the Gerbers free with a second order for the same board, IIRC.

Leon

Thanks for the advise.

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.

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.

-- Regards;

Leland C. Scott KC8LDO

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

By Gordon Bell, father of the minicomputer at DEC.

FWIW, I've been using FreePCB for layouts the past year or so, and find it's pretty well documented and easy to use. It produces Gerbers, and of course you already know that once you have those, you can find lots of different places to order boards, some faster than others, some cheaper than others. I do end up having to build footprints for FreePCB fairly often, but even that's not too bad, and once built, I have them for the future.

Cheers, Tom

Leland C. Scott wrote:

When someone gets hot to trot for the Cadsoft product, I like to remind him that he may find the same situation:

The Downside of EAGLE aka ''The EAGLE virus'' by Markus Zingg

ing

ws

... 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

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

Leon

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.

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

... 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

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

Check this out.

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.

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.

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.

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..

Poxy hell mate. Have you never heard of tinyURL?

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.

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.

Hal;

I'll suggest that to my buddy and see if he has any luck. I didn't consider trying that method. The board he has is about 10 by 12 inches, double sided with around 40 through hole chips on it with several dozen discrete components sprinkled around them. That could get very interesting.

Thanks for the suggestion and this may be what he will have to do. The free Gerber viewer I found will come in handy for checking the results as you pointed out. I'm sure I can find the spec's for the Gerber file format on line some place so that shouldn't be a problem.

Thanks;

Leland C. Scott KC8LDO

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

By Gordon Bell, father of the minicomputer at DEC.