Re: gEDA-user: Ok, who moved pin 4?

[Dave N6NZ <n6nz@xxxxxxxx>]

Peter Clifton wrote:
<snip/>
 >
We have a problem at CUED with various different formats / "types" of
> gerber, and no means to panelise them effectively.
<snip/>
> The thought occurred to me that gerbv is happy enough reading all of the
> above, and all the primitives themselves will probably translate pretty
> well into PCB primitives. (As I mentioned above, the commercial software
> which gets used at CUED can import compatible gerbers).
> 

So, I'm confused.  Which problem are you trying to solve? Panelizing, or 
  pcb file format conversion?

gerbv has the potential to be a much more powerful tool.

First off, I'd like to see a print capability added, so that I could get 
check plots out of gerbv.  (Yes, pcb produces check plots, but when we 
get a gerber from someplace else, gerbv is the natural place to print 
check plots.)

Then, following up on Peter's 2nd comment, since gerbv has a robust 
gerber reader, it would be a great platform for plugins.  If there were 
an API that allowed a plug-in to walk the gerber file data structures we 
could implement all manner of translators, checkers, and back-end tools 
that could accept gerber from anyplace.  This would be valuable to me in 
creating a paste stencil back-end, for instance.

Panelizing is independent functionality from the other two, also good. 
I'd certainly want the ability to print check plots directly from gerbv 
to go with it.

-dave



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