Gerber files

[salah_m7]

Hello everyone 🙂

I would ask you if anyone had worked on bringing a gerber file into labview, I've searched on internet for a VI treating this type of file but I've not found.

thanks

[RavensFan]

You can read any type of file you want with LabVIEW whether it is an ASCII-based text file, or binary, proprietary protocol.

The question is what do you want to do with the Gerber file once you read it in?

[salah_m7]

Thanks for your answer

I need to read this file to control a CNC machine (for PCB), so that's why I've searched for an example, just to have an idea about how to deal with the RS-274x Gerber format in LabVIEW

[RavensFan]

LabVIEW can read in files.  What you want to do with the data that is in the file is up to you as the LabVIEW programmer.

[NIquist]

I spend all day either coding LabVIEW of creating PCBs (PADS) but I've never thought about using LabVIEW to make circuit boards. It has been thought of by others though, I found links:

http://lavag.org/topic/3054-gerber-files/

http://forums.ni.com/t5/LabVIEW/Bringing-in-a-Gerber-file-to-LabView/td-p/518732

Also check out Ultiboard:  http://www.ni.com/ultiboard/

I have to ask, WHY would you want to do this with LabVIEW???

[salah_m7]

Thanks for your answers and for the links

I have to create a control and supervesion application for a CNC(Computer Numerical Command) machine, I must bring Gerber files on LabVIEW , develop some algorithms (linear interpolation, circular interpolation ) and send a numerical command to the CNC machine

[jcarmody]

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@salah_m7 wrote:

Thanks for your answers and for the links

I have to create a control and supervesion application for a CNC(Computer Numerical Command) machine, I must bring Gerber files on LabVIEW , develop some algorithms (linear interpolation, circular interpolation ) and send a numerical command to the CNC machine

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Just a little jealousy happening over here...

[thu^^]

I wonder how did the CNC project go? Been over 2y since the post.

I deal mostly with PCB prototyping at the moment and I got the same idea to command the LPKF Protomat via LabVIEW, since their original software is a piece of dirt - packed with unnecessary features, but lacks the most vital stuff: 1) It can't reliably find fiducials without human intervention. Come on, how hard can it be - detecting the center of a dark circle with known diameter on light background, without missing it by 40-60% of a diameter?; 2) It has a camera, which can focus on a PCB surface, but doesn't have an option to scan a board and detect flaws in copper - your board has a deep scratch - deal with it, manually. Since software can't detect which part of board surface was already used, which is damaged, and which is still usable, you have to do it yourself, by hand; 3) It has a camera, but it wouldn't scan a board and compare the image of a result to the gerbers, detect and warn you about the possible flaws; 4) The Z axis for conical cutters must be adjusted manually each time CNC picks up the tool. It's very important, since how heep the bit is submerged, directly affects the width of insulation/cutout. Come on, it has a frigin camera and a 0.001mm precision Z axis control. Why can't it make a test cut, measure the thickness and autoadjust, without operator having to open the lid, manually adjust counting the clicks, close the lid, make a test run (manually directing the tool!!) and reiterate, sometimes 5-6 times, until the optimum insulation thickness is achieved? 5) The routing is sometimes waaaay suboptimal. Sometimes, the software would compile a path in such fashion, that the router cuts a line, then drives back to the origin to start another parallel line. S-shaped trajectory would make this process at least 2x faster. Sometimes the software does S-trajectories, sometimes it doesn't - nobody knows why or when.
And many many other little things like that.

If I'll be forced to work with this machine next year, I think I'll start a small LabVIEW project and try to make a simple alternative CNC control software, so that students and assistants may then try to implement some of the necessary features as their master's projects. It's a hell of a lot of work though.

[NIquist]

A hell of a lot of work is right! Of course if you break it down and share the jobs among advanced students and faculty you can probably handle it.  At least you could design in the features you want and not be restricted by proprietary software anymore.  LabVIEW should be sufficient for almost all aspects of an application like this.  You might want to call some C code to handle calculation intensive parts like path optimizations but it's up to you to determine how fast your system will perform based on yoiur resources.  Sounds like a cool project though.    Let us know how it goes...

[jedvirgil]

Hi Everyone,

I would like to know updates for this project? Is there anyone still working on bringing gerber files to LabVIEW and viewing it? I am currently working on a similar project which reads gerber files. If anyone has an idea, please share your thoughts.

Thank you.