does a reverse-engineering EDA tool exist?

[Al Kossow]

On 10/24/18 5:41 PM, Guy Dunphy wrote:

> A: Yes. But god knows what it costs.
> 
> http://scancad.net/products/pcb-design-fabrication/pcb-reverse-engineering
> ScanFAB is a fully integrated, stand-alone, scanner- based re-engineering system that permits the creation of CAD data (DXF/Gerber/Drill/CNC) from existing multilayer PCBs, parts, phototools, stencils, drawings, microfiche, PDF files, X-Ray images, etc.
> It also contains a full Gerber editor that can be used to import, modify and export Gerber & Drill data.
> ScanFAB uses Windows-based software linked to a high-resolution, calibrated flatbed scanner. This combination allows for accurate reverse engineering and precise reproduction of data to exact FORM, FIT and FUNCTION for today's high density PCB board designs, complex parts and tooling.

Something like this won't really help for IBM boards. The machines in the Displaywriter era are fabricated
with circuit board material with holes every .1" across the entire board. They are multi-layer, and the solder
mask is dark so optical scanning isn't practical.

I've been tracing out pcbs since the late 70's, so I'm familiar with all the tricks, tracing starting at outputs,
identifying busses and decoders, etc. but it's getting tedious especially on random logic, and I was hoping to
automate some of it.

While it won't be practical to do it on the IBM boards because of the component density I have been working on
automating the tracing process by building some modules that will do some tracing in parallel.