X-Authentication-Warning: delorie.com: mail set sender to geda-help-bounces using -f X-Recipient: geda-help AT delorie DOT com Message-ID: <4F806D9E.1090700@innocent.com> Date: Sat, 07 Apr 2012 12:38:54 -0400 From: Gus Fantanas User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:11.0) Gecko/20120310 Thunderbird/11.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: geda-help AT delorie DOT com CC: rickman Subject: Re: [geda-help] Translate DXF to Gerber References: <4F805C78 DOT 6030508 AT arius DOT com> In-Reply-To: <4F805C78.6030508@arius.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Reply-To: geda-help AT delorie DOT com On 04/07/2012 11:25 AM, rickman wrote: > I have a need to generate a Gerber file for a logo. I can't find > anything to do this with other than a few expensive commercial > programs. Since this is a one shot deal I don't want to pay big bucks > for it. Are there any tools in the GEDA suite that would allow me to > input a DXF file and produce a Gerber file. The logo can also be > output as any of several vector graphic formats as well as standard > image formats. But how to get it into a Gerber file? > > Rick > I have been using the following well-known procedure to import a DXF file onto a PCB layer (credits to Peter Clifton, DJ Delorie, and several others): Import the DXF file to qCAD; print it as ps (observe the difference between printing and exporting); convert it to encapsulated ps with 'ps2epsi'; convert it to pcb using 'pstoedit' with the '-usbbfrominput' and '-f pcb' options; import it to PCB and move it to the appropriate layer if necessary. From PCB, then, you can generate a Gerber file. I use the above procedure to import weird board outlines and fancy fonts and graphics into PCB. One caveat, though: The "vectorness" of the original is lost; curves are split into short line segments. At least this has been my experience with the gEDA I've been using; it is the one that came with stock Ubuntu 11.11. You should be able to generate a vector graphics file in Inkscape and then export it as epsi, skipping the first three steps above. This opens up a lot of possibilities, like better fonts, logos, etc. Hope this helps.