Gerber or ODB++ to Solidworks

[free_electron]

I am trying to find a way to load gerber or ODB data into solidworks in an easy way. it is the copper features i am after. load traces and polygons, give them thickness just like in the real board.

[Neilm]

There is an add on called Circuitworks. It allows you to export the data from your PCB package and pull it into Solidworks. If necesssary, you can pull everything down to the vias - useful if you are doing thermal analysis of your PCB.

[free_electron]

that is indeed the goal. i have circuitworks. but it cannot read odb++ nor gerber.

[Christopher]

Software Companions offer a 30 day trial on their cheap software ($100 iirc) which can convert gerbers to multiple formats. THeir site seems to be down at the moment.

I have used this software before and it's the one bit of software I was glad to pay for as it dug me out of a massive hole. Convert raw gerbers to DXF then Extrude in solidworks. Done.

http://www.softwarecompanions.com/vcpro.html

[Neilm]

that is indeed the goal. i have circuitworks. but it cannot read odb++ nor gerber.

If I recall what they do at work, they don't read the odb++ file directly. They export the data from Allegro to another format that Circuitworks reads in - from memory it was .edf

[free_electron]

I do not want to go through dxf. That was the while point of this question. I avoid dxf as the plague.  The format is crap. Traces are exported as zero width so all geometry including endcaps is lost.
Plus i need to export every layer individually and that is too much work.

Idf is a possibility. BUt only version 4 supports copper geometry . Altium can only export v 3...

I found a workaround using Sherlock. Altium save odb++ ,which we do anyway so no additional work.
Suck in odb in Sherlock. Spit out step. Suck in step in Solidworks enterprise or in Catia.

Sherlock is a failure analysis program for PCB.