GBR files

[beikeland]

That would be a positive process then, and you would need the inverted image, or isolation routing mentioned before. The means to achieve the exposed copper is of less importance, I just suck at spray painting so I use the dry film laminated onto the board, or ready made boards with the film pre-applied.

The isolation routing would be preferable as you don't etch more than you have to, but for some applications leaving isolated/floating islands of copper fill may be undesirable.

[beikeland]

(Well, it might not be 100% correct to call it a positive process, but still you need to not laser the actual tracks)

[beikeland]

I'll attach a .pdf here if you want to look at rastering or outling it.

NB. Its *NOT* to scale.

[Zax]

Does the free version allow saving as PDF or perhaps as PNG?

If so, that may be the best solution. Using Sketch Plus you could raster and then vector trace the outlines to produce very clean lines.

[beikeland]

Does the free version allow saving as PDF or perhaps as PNG?

Nah, not for Gc Prevue at least, gerbv didn't agree with the aperture file either. But a .pdf printer works reasonably well. Imports as vectors to Inkscape, so should be possible to rasterise it at an appropriate dpi if the actual dimensions are known - or to derive the appropriate dimensions from a known component footprint.

[beikeland]

About the FlatCam I mentioned before, it seems to be perfect for Gerber files, (except it does not seem to support the obsolete format).

Check out this thread for an example of gerber data imported, an outline inside the copper fill, and a fill inside the the contour, should make the outer edges as smooth as possible, and still provide infill. There were other options than horizontal lines, needs some experiementing. For now that functionality is hard to achieve outside the development version. But it shows potential, and it seems the devs are trying to polish up the interface for that bit.

http://benboxlaser.us/index.php/topic,1076.msg13286.html#msg13286

edit, no longer perfect for gerbel files 

[Kunaphil]

So.......
Is this still a viable possibility to support gerber?

Thanks,
Phil

[Zax]

It is still possible, but I don't know the best solution as I have no experience with this format.

If I import as vector you will only get the outline and not the aperture (fill) which appears to be required. It's a hybrid format, where vector data is used to generate a raster image.

Do you want the result to be an inverse of the data, or is this something that varies for different files?

[beikeland]

Its an obsolete format and we've shown you ways to convert it to usable files using free software. I can't speak for Zax, but to me it doesn't make sense to invest time and effort into supporting the functionality. Even with the aperture files there is still an unknown dimension and origin. which is the reason the format was obsoleted in the first place.

I'd recommend trying GC prevue, print to .pdf in black and white, invert, scale and raster the resulting .pdf.

[Kunaphil]

Zax,

the files are sometimes inverted and sometimes not.  what if the 274x would be supported as it is not a dead format?
I will figure a way to convert what I have as these are the only 274d files I have.

biekeland,

If I posted the complete projected, could you convert them to .pdf?

thank you,
Phil

[beikeland]

If I posted the complete projected, could you convert them to .pdf?

Sure, shouldn't take too long. But you can download the free software and try it yourself if you want to.

[Zax]

The newer format has many more options to convert it or save as an image you can import to T2Laser.

I don't think most users would get anything from having a native import over other features I can work on.

[Kunaphil]

just downloaded the gc prevue.  not familiar with it.  just learning how to navigate through it.
Here are the files.

thank you again,

Phil

[beikeland]

just downloaded the gc prevue.  not familiar with it.  just learning how to navigate through it.

I'll try to get some screenshots and document the conversion - could be useful for others who find the thread later.

[Kunaphil]

that would be most excellent