15 Apr
2008
15 Apr
'08
6:30 p.m.
der Mouse wrote:
Everyone seems to want Gerbers, but without
documenting exactly what
they are. I found a PDF describing "RS-274X", which appears to be most
of it, but there are lots of conventions it doesn't describe.
That's the spec. What is missing? The Wikipedia page has useful links:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_File
You also need an Excellon drill file:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excellon
I've found indications that there exists some
open-source software, but
extracting documentation from code is a mess.
I dunno about extracting documentation, but gEDA is purportedly useful
for doing board layout.
I use Eagle (from CadSoft). It's not open source, but it's less
expensive than most commercial alternatives, and it seems to work
well. For nonprofit use, there's a "free" version that's limited
to 100x80 mm double-sided boards, or a US $125 version that can do
160x100 mm boards of up to four layers. Beyond that, there are two
levels of commercial versions.