Hi Brad; When I was devising a methodology to compare gerbers on subsequent spins, so I would NOT miss any detail, which has happened & required another spin, several week delay & many perturbed managers & more $$$$, I thought of comparing the data contents of the actual gerber file. Then I witnessed that gerber files, if created from the exact same data, would NEVER be the same, in data order that is. All is important is that the graphical end result is the same, which it is. I don't want to propogate this theory if I am not 110 % sure & being accused of generating modern day PCB "wives tales".
Is this actually correct? I have a nifty 3rd party file compare utility (Beyond Compare) which for $30 or so, is a great tool for comparing line by line & character by character, BOM files. What I end of doing now is using RSI VISION software which has a gerber overlay / compare utility & shows the graphical DIFFS only. This works quite well, but use a big monitor with very good resolution. Regards TDK -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Jon Elson Sent: Friday, December 02, 2005 4:28 PM To: Protel EDA Discussion List Subject: Re: [PEDA] Importing Gerber Plot Files Brad Velander wrote: >Okay Jon, > My error. It was the following statement: > > "The Protel PCB Gerber importer does not support modal mode. Each coordinate line needs to have a Dcode command. Modal mode simply means that the Dcode command is set at the start of a group of coordinates and the command applies until another Dcode command is found." > >That's what I was recalling from my failing memory. > > Yup, that is correct. if the Gerber plot file is sorted so all flashes are grouped together, then all draws, then the D word could be modal, and only given for the first block where needed. I suppose there might be some software that does that in the flash part of the file. Also, if drawing a sorted file, the draws could go move, draw, draw, draw, move, when drawing connected track segments, and the contiguous draws could be made modal. If that were a problem, any of a number of text manipulation languages could be used to copy the previous D word to any block that contains an X or Y but no D word. Jon ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] ____________________________________________________________ You are subscribed to the PEDA discussion forum To Post messages: mailto:[email protected] Unsubscribe and Other Options: http://techservinc.com/mailman/listinfo/peda_techservinc.com Browse or Search Old Archives (2001-2004): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] Browse or Search Current Archives (2004-Current): http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
