PDF to Gerber

I know this topic came up in the thread about PCB CAD programs, so I thought I'd share this info. I was messing around with Eagle the other night and discovered a script that imports BMP's. If you can convert your PDF to a BMP, then you can import that into Eagle. From there, you could export a Gerber, or whatever else you wanted. It works beautifully, I got my first board back today that I did using this method. The file is located in Eagle's "User Language Programs" directory. Just start a new .brd file, then click on File-->Run, and run the import-bmp.ulp file. Cheers,

thanks for the tip!! gonna test this. :thumb:

:guinness:
Fabio

Can you provide a URL for eagle?

http://www.cadsoftusa.com/

David;
Thanks!

The latest version of Rimu does this too. http://www.hutson.co.nz/

David;

The BMP import feature of Eagle is slick as snot.
That feature is worth the price of admission.

Guys (& girls) scan or get a photo of a classic gear
pcb layout. Edit it in a graphics program.
Import into Eagle.
Draw new traces over the old image of the board.
Yes it is as easy as coloring with crayons just "stay inside the lines"
Make a Gerber file an ship it to a PCB house
and your friendly delivery guy will bring you brand new boards!

It it was any easier we would have to come to your house and do it for you!

Does this work with Eagle Light the free download?

yep

Has anyone else made pcb's from these gerber files generated by Eagle?
Are these files commonly accepted at fab house?
*.drl
*.drd
*.dri
*.cmp
*.sol
*.plc
*.stc
*.sts
*.gpi
http://www.interq.or.jp/japan/se-inoue/e_eagle44.htm

yep that looks like the gerb274x + the excelleron drill files.

try www.4pcb.com they have a design rule check that will turn these files into PDFs.

Has anyone else made pcb's from these gerber files generated by Eagle?
Are these files commonly accepted at fab house?
*.drl
*.drd
*.dri
*.cmp
*.sol
*.plc
*.stc
*.sts
*.gpi

Click to expand...

There is also a .txt file for the drill sizes, I think (my memory is a bit hazy here). I know cos it is always the one I forget to send them....

Peter

Hey I've tried this method several times and cannot get the scale correct!
Can someone tell me what options to select durning import. I believe the PDF is 1:1 then if I convert to BMP at 300DPI (dots per inch)

what do I select in Eagle to make this scale correctly?

-ChuckD

I had the same trouble.. I had to resize bmp untill it was rigth

I have a few "Eagle" questions that are follow ups to this post.
If anyone could answer it would be a great help!

1. Do the Drill Holes have to be on the DRILL layer? Can I drop them on any layer and the gebers will still be correct?

2. Can I do a select all on a layer and then change the layer to something else? I want to import a pdf Top Silk Screen layer and then map it to the actual screen layer.

3. Can I scale the whole Board layout? lets say I drew it 10% too large, can I reduce everything by 10%? How?

Thanks! As you can tell I am working on my first PCB board so any help would be great!

-ChuckD

I've given up on Eagle for now.Can't seem to get anything done in that program except spending all my time trying to learn the damn thing.

TraxMaker is much easier to learn if you can get your hands on CircuitMaker 2000.(No longer sold or supported)

I have some PDF pcb layouts that I'm turning into gerbers,so here is what I've done so far.

First take the artwork and convert it to BMP or JPEG,etc...

Next you will need a program to convert to DXF file.I use IMG2CAD witch you can download here for free.

http://www.img2cad.com/

You will need to play with the options menu to get the artwork 1:1 scale.
These are the settings I used to get very close.

http://twin-x.com/groupdiy/displayimage.php?pos=-1667

TraxMaker will import DXF files but for some reason you have to choose millimeters in import options.I also chose to import the DXF to the top layer wich can later be erased after traces and pads are placed.I placed one trace and 2 pads for example.
This is what it should look like.

http://twin-x.com/groupdiy/displayimage.php?pos=-1666

When done make gerbers and life is much better.

Have you actually gone through any of the eagle tutorials, I find the program to be very handy and we've all linked tons of great resources for learning it here on the forum.

[quote author="Ptownkid"]Have you actually gone through any of the eagle tutorials, I find the program to be very handy and we've all linked tons of great resources for learning it here on the forum.[/quote]

No I have not spent a great deal of time wrapping my little noodle around it,but I'm sure some day I will find it useful.
I've been using TraxMaker a lot longer.
If I can manipulate Pro Tools 7 I'm pretty sure I can learn Eagle.
:guinness:

Does anyone know how within Eagle can you grab a whole layer like the BitMap layer and move it to a Metal layer? Is this possible I can't figure out this.

Thanks

-ChuckD

OK there is a change layer script under the run directory to do that but you cannot change a Non-metal to a metal.


Also I keep running into this error where the object counter limit is exceeded and it stops the import tool.

How do I turn this off??????

-ChuckD