Hi That is why I didn't say that one should write a program that reads scanned files, I said that one should have a tool that worked from a mouse ( with human attached ). Most tools that would look at scanned data would tend to make a lot of small rectangles instead of correctly grouping the information as a single large rectangle. We are talking about something that a human can easily do but a program has issues because it requires judgement. The fact is that Gerber files are quite simple. They are about as simple as one can get. Although I don't recall the exact syntax, it is thing like goto to x,y; with aperture wheel position 2 draw relative xx,yy; goto to u,v; with aperture wheel postion 3 flash; and so on and so on. I don't think one could describe a PC board any simpler than that. I never said that an automatic tool should be easy to write. I said that one could make a useful tool that would use a mouse to locate and draw( snap would be nice ). One would simply trace the pdf or what ever with the mouse. Dwight