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Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2012 10:44:49 -0500
From: Dan McMahill <dan AT mcmahill DOT net>
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To: geda-user AT delorie DOT com
Subject: Re: [geda-user] Standalone DRC for Gerber files
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On 1/13/2012 6:09 PM, Stephen Ecob wrote:
> On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 3:04 AM, Peter Stuge <peter AT stuge DOT se> wrote:
>> Colin D Bennett wrote:
>>> Ideally.... it would be REALLY awesome if there were a way to import
>>> Gerbers into pcb
>>
>> Do gerbers have traces and widths, or only outlines?
> 
> Traces and widths, the same as PCB.
> 
> There's a fairly straight forward mapping between PCB primitives and
> Gerber primitives, it's pretty much one to one.
> 

but there are also polygons in RS-274X.  There are also codes which
invert the sense of the output, so for example you can represent a large
copper area with a funny cut through it by defining a polygon and then
erasing the cut area.  Those don't quite map directly to pcb.

There are also aperture macros that can define things like thermals and
other more complex geometries.

I agree that a basic import that gets you part way there is probably not
too hard.  To get all the way there is likely a pain.

-Dan