>From: "Jim Kearney" <jim_at_jkearney.com>
>
>
>> Back to the original question: I'm not sure how to do a non-gerber board
>> inexpensively. If the artwork is in a pdf file (or even a tif from a
>> scan), you would need to find a board house that could use it, but none
>> come to mind.
>
>Olimex (in Bulgaria) claims to accept them, but I don't think you would get
>any holes drilled.
>
>I just tried to convert a PDF file to Gerber by going to a BMP file and then
>converting that to an Eagle CAD script file, but it eventually failed
>because Eagle couldn't handle the number of rectangles that the simplistic
>converter generated. In principle it could work, if the converter made
>bigger rectangles than one per source pixel.
>
>LEADtools supports Gerber format as output in their libraries, so any of
>their tools might work. For example, ePrint
>(http://www.leadtools.com/Utilities/PrinterDriver/eprint_printer_driver.htm)
>is a generic Windows printer driver that has Gerber in its output format
>list.
>
>None of these work very well, though, because they're a lot of work and you
>don't have a drill file. I think in the end the only real solution is to
>get a Gerber file somehow, even if you have to re-enter the design in your
>CAD software. Toner transfer, iron-on and CNC milling all take far too much
>work for not particularly good results.
>
>
Hi
Gerber format is not all that complicated. It seems that someone
with a little cleverness could write a simple mouse program that
would digitize mouse movements and buttons.
It was a while back but I used to hand fix bad gerber files to
get PC boards made. It seems that most programs still have bugs
and will trash some of the commands. I'd display the gerber
file on the screen and look for the big trapezoid or some other
messed up thing. I'd then go in and change it back to the correct
rectangle or what ever.
It has been a number of years but like I said, it wasn't that
complicated. You need to consider that is was a direct input sequence
of moves for a gerber plotter.
Dwight
Received on Thu Nov 21 2002 - 12:09:01 GMT