Vector to Gerber?

[peps1]

Hey guys,

I make a whole tone of cloned vintage PCBs, and the vast majority of these are hand drawn/taped with all sorts of arcs and nuances I just can't replicate in Eagle.

So, I end up scanning the boards and tracing them in Photoshop or illustrator to get the artwork that I then toner transfer on to A4 panels using a T-Shirt heat press.

But I'm now at the point where I just can't keep up with the demand for the boards, so need to get a fab house involved......and they all want Gerber.
 
So, I was wondering can I make a vector image in Illustrator and export it to Gerber?

(these are all single sided PCBs, most don't even have solder mask or screen) 

[CalG]

Potrace and Gimp?  Not sure if Gimp outputs Gerber code.

I use that combination for image conversion to  HP-GL   

Perhaps there is another image format to Gerber conversion utility.  With Gimp, Blender or Inkscape as go between.

Here is "something"  http://www.artwork.com/gerber/hp2gbr.htm

then of course there is google  which returned this reference on the subject
http://ask.metafilter.com/143118/howto-convert-a-BMP-file-to-a-gerber-file-for-PCB-fabrication

[ivan747]

This might be of your interest:
https://www.eevblog.com/forum/eda/re-laying-out-a-board-from-a-pdf/
Specially the BMP to vector converter.

[westfw]

EAGLE will import BMP files into arbitrary layers at relatively arbitrary resolution, so in theory you should be able to export your vector file to a BMP image, import that to copper, and export from eagle to gerber again.
It's likely to create rather large gerber files that PCB companies may not like (I think it works by essentially making RLE line segments of a width equal to your resolution; which is similar to polygon fill with a very small line width.)  However, it should work: people have done some pretty impressive art in their copper layers using this ( http://quinndunki.com/blondihacks/?p=835 )

You can also use the imported image as a guide for accurate re-layout using the normal EAGLE drawing tools, maybe.

[yanir]

Is is necessary to maintain the exact layout of those vintage pcbs? I'm sure they look really cool, but if you just want the board to work you don't need maintain the curveyness of those old boards.


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[peps1]

Is is necessary to maintain the exact layout of those vintage pcbs? I'm sure they look really cool, but if you just want the board to work you don't need maintain the curveyness of those old boards.

Yes, unfortunately they do have to look right, as well as work right.....And, I appreciate how ludicrous that will sound to many. 

But, I always compare it to vintage motors, people restoring old cars don't just want the part to work, they want it to look period correct too.

(These are all for vintage audio equipment.......and audiophile/analog gear heads are the first to admit they are a strange bunch, add restoration into the mix and you got these strange predicaments! )

I have thought about maybe using DesignSpark, as the Arc tool looks vastly superior to what you can do in Eagle. Just not sure where im going to find the time to learn a whole new program 

Potrace and Gimp?  Not sure if Gimp outputs Gerber code.

As I can trace the board in vector no problem, but I don't really want to deal with bitmap/Raster graphics at all due to how much the trace will degrade.....will look into inkscape exporting formats.

[peps1]

Found this perl script that is meant to convert PDF to gerber files:
http://swannman.github.io/pdf2gerb/

But, whenever I feed a PDF though it, I just get a sold layer?



Anyone else use this pdf2gerb, or fancies helping me out?

[westfw]

PDF is a pretty inclusive format.  The pdf2gerb page implies that it handles a subset of "special" pdf formatted documents, and is dependent on some pretty obscure illustrator commands to generate it.  It probably won't work if your PDF contains an embedded bitmap instead of vectors, for instance.

OTOH, the thought that gerber is fundamentally ALSO a vector drawing language is thought provoking.
It ought to be possible to convert, relatively easily, assuming you have a documented vector language in the first place (.svg instead of a proprietary Illustrator format.)

Did you see http://boldport.blogspot.com/2013/01/introducing-pcbmode.html ?

[peps1]

OTOH, the thought that gerber is fundamentally ALSO a vector drawing language is thought provoking.
It ought to be possible to convert, relatively easily, assuming you have a documented vector language in the first place (.svg instead of a proprietary Illustrator format.)

Thats what I thought, but not having much luck! 

Did you see http://boldport.blogspot.com/2013/01/introducing-pcbmode.html ?

I did see that, and got really excited and emailed author Saar whos made some stunning boards......but in his words
"honestly, PCBmodE isn't in a very usable state, on top of no documentation." But, im going to see if I can rope him into helping me out!


(Totally off topic, but are you the 'westfw' who did the "Single Sided Really Bare Bones Board Arduino" instructable? if so love that board and use it loads!)

[westfw]

Can you import your files to inkscape (via SVG or whatever.)  That at least has a large community and easily addable extensions.
There's this: https://bitbucket.org/jst/inkscape-gcode/src/b2f3d2a1f7a0/src/saveas_rs274x.inx
(rs274x is geber...)

are you the 'westfw' who did the "Single Sided Really Bare Bones Board Arduino"

Yep.  Via Paul Badger at MDC, of course.  There's not exactly enough there for me to be "proud" of, but I'm glad you've found it useful!

[mikeselectricstuff]

Some PCB houses can take PDF and other vector formats, but they may not know that their photoplot system can accept other than gerbers, and their workflow may not be optimal with other formats.
Integration with drill data ay be an issue though.