3D gerber viewer

[Chyn2000]

I do not think you are going to disappoint anybody. This is your program and you are making it the best you can and the way that feels right for you. We (the users) can give you suggestions all day, but you have to decide how much time and effort you are going to devote.

You can actually do a lot with the scroll wheel by having different modes. You could right click and select "Navigation mode" or "Layer mode". You could even use hot keys like you did with the F5-F8 keys for the layer peeling options. Or even have a "Scroll while pressing L" to have the scroll wheel affect the layer peel.

Another option you could do to control layer access is to put a layer control window on the right side of the screen. This is common for many Gerber viewers. Layer 1 On/Off check box. Maybe even better would be to make a slide bar that controls the transparency level of the layer. You could even go so far as to make all of the options for displaying that layer available through this window (like the plated vias option or choosing if a layer is a "keep-out" layer like many solder mask layers are).

Thanks again,
Chyn

[marshallh]

very nifty program and quite helpful

You might check out mayhew lab's 3d gerber viewer. It is good for a one-shot quick look at boards, maybe you can learn some small tricks from it.

Could I add the following suggestions:

1. Remove copper within drill cross-section
2. Option to view negative copper layers without the very cool, but sometimes distracting fadeout effect.

[marshallh]

Odd, loaded another design and the holes are working now.

[zofz]

The upcoming version, have this feature.
I have placed more detailed description of work in progress on the bottom of www.zofzpcb.com/BugList.html page.
This also includes download link to the current snapshot.
Ctrl-Wheel does the volume density and finally the hollow to solid change.

[JoannaK]

Oh.. Wow...  At the first I was going to write about asking " why wuold anyone want to see 3D gerbers.. " but after the video, I think I can see the light..

[free_electron]

why wuold anyone want to see 3D gerbers.. "

because we design boards in 3D now... it's only logical to be able to see gerber in 3D and see how loops are formed.
this 3d viewer is great for things like embedded transofrmers etc .

[free_electron]

you know what would be really cool : being able to export as step (AP214) or google sketchup file .... that would open incredible psossibilities...

[richcj10]

http://www.gerber-viewer.com/

Works quiet well. I use it all the time. Especially when working with 4+ layer boards.
I sometimes make a mistake in CAM. This validates the whole board in one easy step!

[Mechatrommer]

There are still things to be done to close this release, but I have a preview:

kudos for your effort and mastery. thats what a DirectX is for (cool 3d rotation animation etc), but unfortunately not what a pcb viewer for more or less imho infact counterfeiting its purpose, most of Mike's comment are pretty valid and you should investigate it more seriously to implement in your App. few comments for constructive:

1) gradient at ground pour is confusing (refer to pic).
2) i prefer a quick way to zoom in and out. its ok that you used mouse middle scroll for stripping layer out, but where's the zoom in and out? i have region that occasionally went out of view range while rotating due to your "automatic" resize function?

few usefull function (mostly Mike already mentioned it)
1) selecting a net with highlighted colors. if possible at all layers (maybe you can check connectivity through via's etc).
2) moving or deleting object or mask or letter and re-save in gerber. (the diptrace i used has the habit of making wrong mask positioning during conversion to gerber from pcb layout editor)
3) be able to selectively strip out any layer(s) we dont want instead of from top to bottom mouse scroll stripping.

for simple pcb (like below), i still prefer the diptrace 3d render (still lack of hiding the mask ) and keep flipping to trace something. your viewer can be confusing albeit super fancy coloring and animation. this is not discouragement but since you are already at it, i wish you can make some "usefull" and "functional" modification, hey! you can sell this stuff if done properly . its not common to see people can implement DirectX to its usefull potential, some people i saw using DirectX to draw simple line which can be done easily with GDI, but the drawback as its already prevail.. you have to do everything from scratch, even a simple Windows box, let alone trying to reuse standard GUI.

YMMV.

[zofz]

Mechatrommer, It looks like the drill file is not loaded in the above view.
Try to add it by hand - let me know if there are any problems to read the excellon file.
Then colors will be the same for the same net. Highlight also works for whole nets. (mouse-hoover and 'N')
If your files was loaded by "auto", tell me the file name extension of the drill file, (to be placed in CAM_Load_Rules.txt)

Thanks everybody! -  I really appreciate you comments!   
see  work in progress http://www.zofzpcb.com/BugList.html#bottom
colors:
is a scrambled topmost/left drill relative position of the net. (I try to keep the same net  colors for different versions of the same board).
I have to think about staying away from background color, etc.

[NewBeginner]

Is zoom in/out working (using a standard mouse)? 

[Mechatrommer]

Try to add it by hand - let me know if there are any problems to read the excellon file.

tried loading the drill file (attached below). also attached is the error box. drill file is generated by diptrace. (edit: got it! i pressed the wrong button)
RS-274 format generated by geda gerber viewer dont show the gradient copper pour, its nice solid pour, so not sure why gerber from diptrace showing the gradient and why is the reason different rendering method for different gerber format.

and i think mouse scroll wheel is upside down. when i scroll by pushing up, it logically should strip the top layer up, but no, i have to scroll down to strip up, kinda dont like it. may i suggest by pressing middle button (not implemented i suspect since it did nothing) while at the same time scrolling, the App will zoom in or out?

edit: it got better and better! with highlight capability. kudos!

[free_electron]

in order for highlight to work the drill file needs to beloaded.
as for the shading on the polygons : this depends on ow your cad program exports a polygon. ZofZ can handle complex polygons and shades them. if your cad program does NOt use the polygon feature but exports this as a bunch of overlapping lines then it will be drawn as solid.
Depends on how the feature is implemented in the CAd software.

it would be nice to be avble totell : shading on edges off : show polygons as solid.

[Mattylad]

WOW!

This is cool- I feel like I am on drugs looking at the demo board.

Keep it up - its the future.
This is similar to something in CR8000 that I have seen on the tube, I will be showing this to my colleagues as it's certainly looking good.

[Simon]

I will play with this today. Looks very interesting. Here is a couple of things that may or not be implmemented

- ability to select a number of nets and have the others 'dimmed' ( grayscale 50% ). This allows for analysis of loop in the board. While in this mode : clicking one one of them hghlights in pure white. Clicking on another reverts the white one to a color and makes the clicked one pure white.

- colorblind people.... I for example do not see green. I have only a 'luma' receptor but no 'chroma detector for green.
So , if you show me 10% red and 10% green... They are identical. Of course i know grass is green nad where the green traffic light is, but if you play with intensity ( especially low contrast rates... ) it becomes a nightmare...

So have mode where you restrict you color palette to high contrast colors...

- support for a spacenavigator ? That would be really cool !
- ability to set the distance between layers ( realistic so you see the real boardstack , and an 'exploded view' mode so you can go 'inside'. This is good to check buried vias or counterdrilled pads.

 Oh space navigator yeas, thought that myself when I started reading the thread.

[Simon]

I have been using this Gerber-files viewer http://gerbv.sourceforge.net

You can change the order of layers drawn, switch them on/off and see the drills as well, do different kinds of measurements manually to ensure the Gerbers are OK. The only disadvantage I can see is that it runs under Linux.

What is it with that website, it keeps going to another page after a certain delay, I don't like it !

[baljemmett]

Mechatrommer, It looks like the drill file is not loaded in the above view.
Try to add it by hand - let me know if there are any problems to read the excellon file.
Then colors will be the same for the same net. Highlight also works for whole nets. (mouse-hoover and 'N')
If your files was loaded by "auto", tell me the file name extension of the drill file, (to be placed in CAM_Load_Rules.txt)

Just remembered this thread when looking to sanity-check my first ever set of gerbers (eek) -- downloaded ZofzPCB and it looks pretty neat -- thanks!

I did notice one oddity -- the first drill hit in my Excellon file doesn't seem to show up.  It's a via, and I just see the pads in the copper layers at that location but no through hole.  All the other holes show up fine; I used the P key to find the centre of the pad -- (843.0,765.0) -- and checked the drill file, which starts:

Code: [Select]

%
M48
M72
T01C0.0197
[... other drills omitted for brevity - ed. ]
%
T01
X8430Y7650
X8680Y9400
X12180Y9650
[... and so on and so forth]

... so to my inexpert eye it looks like it should be there.  I used EAGLE to generate the files with default settings, and I had to manually add the drill file (extension .drd) and untick the 'millimetres' option in the file format popup, if that's of any help.  I can also send you the full file set if needed.

Thanks for a nice tool though; hope this observation is constructive!