1gerbv(1) 2.9.8 gerbv(1)
2
6 gerbv - Gerber Viewer
7
9 gerbv [OPTIONS] [gerberfile[s]]
10
12 gerbv is a viewer for RS274-X, commonly known as Gerber, files.
13 RS274-X files are generated from different PCB CAD programs and are
14 used in the printed circuit board manufacturing process. gerbv also
15 supports Excellon/NC drill files as well as XY (centroid) files pro‐
16 duced by the program PCB (http://pcb.geda-project.org/).
17
20 Warning! On some platforms, which hasn't long option available, only
21 short options are available.
22 gerbv General options:
25 -V|--version Print the version number of gerbv and exit.
26 -h|--help
28 Print a brief usage guide and exit.
29 -b<hex>|--background=<hex>
31 Use background color <hex>. <hex> is specified as an html-color
32 code, e.g. #FF0000 for Red.
33 -f<hex>|--foreground=<hex>
35 Use foreground color <hex>. <hex> is specified as an html-color
36 code, e.g. #00FF00 for Green. If a user also wants to set the
37 alpha (rendering with Cairo) it can be specified as an #RRGGBBAA
38 code. Use multiple -f flags to set the color for multiple lay‐
39 ers.
40 -l <filename>|--log=<filename>
42 All error messages etc are stored in a file with filename <file‐
43 name>.
44 -t <filename>|--tools=<filename>
46 Read Excellon tools from the file <filename>.
47 -p <project filename>|--project=<project filename>
49 Load a stored project. Please note that the project file must be
50 stored in the same directory as the Gerber files.
51 gerbv Export-specific options:
54 The following commands can be used in combination with the -x flag:
55 -B<b>|--border=<b>
57 Set the border around the image <b> percent of the width and
58 height. Default <b> is 5%.
59 -D<XxY>or<R>|--dpi=<XxY>or<R>
61 Resolution (Dots per inch) for the output bitmap. Use <XxY> for
62 different resolutions for the width and height (only when com‐
63 piled with Cairo as render engine). Use <R> to have the same
64 resolution in both directions. Defaults to 72 DPI in both di‐
65 rections.
66 -T<XxYrR|X;YrR>|--translate=<XxYrR|X;YrR>
68 Translate image by X and Y and rotate by R degree. Use multiple
69 -T flags to translate multiple files. Distance defaults to
70 inches but may be changed with --units. Only evaluated when ex‐
71 porting as RS274X or drill.
72 -O<XxY|X;Y>|--origin=<XxY|X;Y>
74 Set the lower left corner of the exported image to coordinate
75 <XxY>. Coordinates defaults to inches but may be changed with
76 --units.
77 -a|--antialias
79 Use antialiasing for the generated output-bitmap.
80 -o <filename>|--output=<filename>
82 Export to <filename>.
83 -u<inch/mm/mil>|--units=<inch/mm/mil>
85 Use given unit for coordinates. Default to inches.
86 -W<WxH>|--window_inch=<WxH>
88 Window size in inches <WxH> for the exported image.
89 -w<WxH>|--window=WxH>
91 Window size in pixels <WxH> for the exported image. Autoscales
92 to fit if no resolution is specified (note that the default 72
93 DPI also changes in that case). If a resolution is specified, it
94 will clip the image to this size.
95 -x<png/pdf/ps/svg/rs274x/drill>|--export=<png/pdf/ps/svg/rs274x/drill>
97 Export to a file and set the format for the output file.
98 GTK Options
101 --gtk-module=MODULE Load an additional GTK module
102 --g-fatal-warnings
104 Make all warnings fatal
105 --gtk-debug=FLAGS
107 GTK debugging flags to set
108 --gtk-no-debug=FLAGS
110 GTK debugging flags to unset
111 --gdk-debug=FLAGS
113 GDK debugging flags to set
114 --gdk-no-debug=FLAGS
116 GDK debugging flags to unset
117 --display=DISPLAY
119 X display to use
120 --sync Make X call synchronous
122 --no-xshm
124 Don't use X shared memory extension
125 --name=NAME
127 Program name as used by the window manager
128 --class=CLASS
130 Program class as used by the window manager
131
134 When you start gerbv you can give the files to be loaded on the command
135 line, either as each file separated with a space or by using wildcards.
136 The user interface is graphical. Simply press and drag middle mouse
138 button (scroll wheel) and the image will pan as you move the mouse. To
139 manipulate a layer, right-click on one of the rightmost list items.
140 That will bring up a pop-up menu where you can select what you want to
141 do with that layer (reload file, change color, etc).
142 If you hold the mouse button over one the rightmost button a tooltips
144 will show you the name of the file loaded on that layer.
145
148 You can load several files at one time. You can then turn displaying of
149 the layers on and off by clicking on one of check boxes near the layer
150 names.
151 You can also control this from the keyboard. Press Ctrl, enter the num‐
153 ber on the layer you want activate/deactivate on the numerical keypad
154 and then release the Ctrl key.
155
158 You can align two layers by selected elements. Select one element on
159 each of two layers and click Align layers from context menu.
160
163 Zooming can be handled by either menu choices, keypressing or mouse
164 scroll wheel. If you press z you will zoom in and if you press Shift+z
165 (i.e. Z) you will zoom out. Scroll wheel works if you enabled that in
166 your X server and mapped it to button 4 and 5. You can make the image
167 fit by pressing f (there is also a menu alternative for this). If Pan,
168 Zoom, or Measure Tool is selected you can press right mouse button for
169 zoom in, and if you press Shift and right mouse button you will zoom
170 out.
171 You can also do zooming by outline. Select Zoom Tool, press mouse but‐
173 ton, draw, release. The dashed line shows how the zooming will be de‐
174 pendent on the resolution of the window. The non-dashed outline will
175 show what you actually selected. If you change your mind when started
176 to mark outline, you can always abort by pressing escape. By holding
177 down the Shift key when you press the mouse button, you will select an
178 area where the point you started at will be the center of your selec‐
179 tion.
180
183 You can do measurement on the image displayed. Select Measure Tool, the
184 cursor changes to a plus. By using left mouse button you can draw the
185 lines that you want to measure. The result of the last measurement is
186 also displayed on the statusbar. All measurements are in the drawing
187 until you select other Tool. To measure distance between elements se‐
188 lect two of them and switch to Measure Tool.
189 The statusbar shows the current mouse position on the layer in the same
191 coordinates as in the file. I.e. if you have (0,0) in the middle of the
192 image in the Gerber files, the statusbar will show (0,0) at the same
193 place.
194
197 When you load several Gerber files, you can display them "on top of
198 each other", i.e. superimposing. The general way to display them are
199 that upper layers cover the layers beneath, which is called copy (GTK+
200 terms).
201 The other ways selectable are and, or, xor and invert. They map di‐
203 rectly to corresponding functions in GTK. In GTK they are described as:
204 "For colored images, only GDK_COPY, GDK_XOR and GDK_INVERT are gener‐
205 ally useful. For bitmaps, GDK_AND and GDK_OR are also useful."
206
209 gerbv can also handle projects. A project consist of bunch of loaded
210 layers with their resp. color and the background color. The easiest way
211 to create a project is to load all files you want into the layer you
212 want, set all the colors etc and do a "Save Project As...".
213 You load a project either from the menu bar or by using the commandline
215 switches -p or --project.
216 Currently there is a limit in that the project file must be in the same
218 directory as the Gerber files to be loaded.
219
222 The project files are simple Scheme programs that is interpreted by a
223 built in Scheme interpreter. The Scheme interpreter is TinyScheme and
224 needs a Scheme program called init.scm to initialize itself. The search
225 path for init.scm is (in the following order) /usr/share/gerbv/scheme,
226 the directory with the executable gerbv, the directory gerbv was in‐
227 voked from and finally according to the environment variable
228 GERBV_SCHEMEINIT.
229
232 Not every Excellon drill file is self-sufficient. Some CADs produce
233 .drd files where tools are only referenced, but never defined (such as
234 what diameter of the tool is.) Eagle CAD is one of such CADs, and there
235 are more since many board houses require Tools files.
236 A Tools file is a plain text file which you create in an editor. Each
238 line of the file describes one tool (the name and the diameter, in
239 inches):
240 T01 0.024
242 T02 0.040
243 ...
244 These are the same tools (T01 etc.) that are used in the Drill file. A
246 standard practice with Eagle is to create an empty Tools file, run the
247 CAM processor, and the error report tells you which tools you "forgot".
248 Then you put these tools into the file and rerun the CAM processor.
249 You load a tool file by using the commandline switches -t or --tools.
251 The file can have any name you wish, but Eagle expects the file type to
252 be ".drl", so it makes sense to keep it this way. Some board houses are
253 still using CAM software from DOS era, so you may want to exercise cau‐
254 tion before going beyond the 8.3 naming convention.
255 When gerbv reads the Tools file it also checks that there are no dupli‐
257 cate definitions of tools. This does happen from time to time as you
258 edit the file by hand, especially if you, during design, add or remove
259 parts from the board and then have to add new tools into the Tools
260 file. The duplicate tools are a very serious error which will stop
261 (HOLD) your board until you fix the Tools file and maybe the Excellon
262 file. gerbv will detect duplicate tools if they are present, and will
263 exit immediately to indicate such a fatal error in a very obvious way.
264 A message will also be printed to standard error.
265 If your Excellon file does not contain tool definitions then gerbv will
267 preconfigure the tools by deriving the diameter of the drill bit from
268 the tool number. This is probably not what you want, and you will see
269 warnings printed on the console.
270
273 Supported comma separated file (CSV) with fixed order of data:
274 # X,Y in mils.
276 Designator,"Description","Value",X,Y,"Rotation (deg)",top/bottom
277 or
279 Designator,"Footprint","Mid X","Mid Y","Ref X","Ref Y",
281 "Pad X","Pad Y",T/B,"Rotation","Comment"
282 Units can be specified in format "# X,Y in mils." or as suffix for X/Y-
284 coordinates, i.e ",10mil,". Supported units: in, mil, cmil, dmil, km,
285 m, dm, cm, mm, um, nm.
286
289 GERBV_SCHEMEINIT
290 Defines where the init.scm file is stored. Used by scheme inter‐
291 preter, which is used by the project reader.
292
295 Stefan Petersen (spetm at users.sourceforge.net): Overall hacker and project leader
296 Andreas Andersson (e92_aan at e.kth.se): Drill file support and general hacking
297 Anders Eriksson (aenfaldor at users.sourceforge.net): X and GTK+ ideas and hacking
298
301 Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Stefan Petersen
302 This document can be freely redistributed according to the terms of the
304 GNU General Public License version 2.0
305Version Jule 13, 2013 gerbv(1)