Provided by: gerbv_2.9.8-1ubuntu0.1_amd64 
NAME
gerbv - Gerber Viewer
SYNOPSIS
gerbv [OPTIONS] [gerberfile[s]]
DESCRIPTION
gerbv is a viewer for RS274-X, commonly known as Gerber, files. RS274-X files are
generated from different PCB CAD programs and are used in the printed circuit board
manufacturing process. gerbv also supports Excellon/NC drill files as well as XY
(centroid) files produced by the program PCB (http://pcb.geda-project.org/).
OPTIONS
Warning! On some platforms, which hasn't long option available, only short options are
available.
gerbv General options:
-V|--version Print the version number of gerbv and exit.
-h|--help
Print a brief usage guide and exit.
-b<hex>|--background=<hex>
Use background color <hex>. <hex> is specified as an html-color code, e.g. #FF0000
for Red.
-f<hex>|--foreground=<hex>
Use foreground color <hex>. <hex> is specified as an html-color code, e.g. #00FF00
for Green. If a user also wants to set the alpha (rendering with Cairo) it can be
specified as an #RRGGBBAA code. Use multiple -f flags to set the color for multiple
layers.
-l <filename>|--log=<filename>
All error messages etc are stored in a file with filename <filename>.
-t <filename>|--tools=<filename>
Read Excellon tools from the file <filename>.
-p <project filename>|--project=<project filename>
Load a stored project. Please note that the project file must be stored in the same
directory as the Gerber files.
gerbv Export-specific options:
The following commands can be used in combination with the -x flag:
-B<b>|--border=<b>
Set the border around the image <b> percent of the width and height. Default <b>
is 5%.
-D<XxY>or<R>|--dpi=<XxY>or<R>
Resolution (Dots per inch) for the output bitmap. Use <XxY> for different
resolutions for the width and height (only when compiled with Cairo as render
engine). Use <R> to have the same resolution in both directions. Defaults to 72
DPI in both directions.
-T<XxYrR|X;YrR>|--translate=<XxYrR|X;YrR>
Translate image by X and Y and rotate by R degree. Use multiple -T flags to
translate multiple files. Distance defaults to inches but may be changed with
--units. Only evaluated when exporting as RS274X or drill.
-O<XxY|X;Y>|--origin=<XxY|X;Y>
Set the lower left corner of the exported image to coordinate <XxY>. Coordinates
defaults to inches but may be changed with --units.
-a|--antialias
Use antialiasing for the generated output-bitmap.
-o <filename>|--output=<filename>
Export to <filename>.
-u<inch/mm/mil>|--units=<inch/mm/mil>
Use given unit for coordinates. Default to inches.
-W<WxH>|--window_inch=<WxH>
Window size in inches <WxH> for the exported image.
-w<WxH>|--window=WxH>
Window size in pixels <WxH> for the exported image. Autoscales to fit if no
resolution is specified (note that the default 72 DPI also changes in that case).
If a resolution is specified, it will clip the image to this size.
-x<png/pdf/ps/svg/rs274x/drill>|--export=<png/pdf/ps/svg/rs274x/drill>
Export to a file and set the format for the output file.
GTK Options
--gtk-module=MODULE Load an additional GTK module
--g-fatal-warnings
Make all warnings fatal
--gtk-debug=FLAGS
GTK debugging flags to set
--gtk-no-debug=FLAGS
GTK debugging flags to unset
--gdk-debug=FLAGS
GDK debugging flags to set
--gdk-no-debug=FLAGS
GDK debugging flags to unset
--display=DISPLAY
X display to use
--sync Make X call synchronous
--no-xshm
Don't use X shared memory extension
--name=NAME
Program name as used by the window manager
--class=CLASS
Program class as used by the window manager
GENERAL
When you start gerbv you can give the files to be loaded on the command line, either as
each file separated with a space or by using wildcards.
The user interface is graphical. Simply press and drag middle mouse button (scroll wheel)
and the image will pan as you move the mouse. To manipulate a layer, right-click on one of
the rightmost list items. That will bring up a pop-up menu where you can select what you
want to do with that layer (reload file, change color, etc).
If you hold the mouse button over one the rightmost button a tooltips will show you the
name of the file loaded on that layer.
ACTIVATION AND DEACTIVATION OF LAYERS
You can load several files at one time. You can then turn displaying of the layers on and
off by clicking on one of check boxes near the layer names.
You can also control this from the keyboard. Press Ctrl, enter the number on the layer you
want activate/deactivate on the numerical keypad and then release the Ctrl key.
ALIGNING OF LAYERS
You can align two layers by selected elements. Select one element on each of two layers
and click Align layers from context menu.
ZOOMING
Zooming can be handled by either menu choices, keypressing or mouse scroll wheel. If you
press z you will zoom in and if you press Shift+z (i.e. Z) you will zoom out. Scroll wheel
works if you enabled that in your X server and mapped it to button 4 and 5. You can make
the image fit by pressing f (there is also a menu alternative for this). If Pan, Zoom, or
Measure Tool is selected you can press right mouse button for zoom in, and if you press
Shift and right mouse button you will zoom out.
You can also do zooming by outline. Select Zoom Tool, press mouse button, draw, release.
The dashed line shows how the zooming will be dependent on the resolution of the window.
The non-dashed outline will show what you actually selected. If you change your mind when
started to mark outline, you can always abort by pressing escape. By holding down the
Shift key when you press the mouse button, you will select an area where the point you
started at will be the center of your selection.
MEASUREMENTS
You can do measurement on the image displayed. Select Measure Tool, the cursor changes to
a plus. By using left mouse button you can draw the lines that you want to measure. The
result of the last measurement is also displayed on the statusbar. All measurements are in
the drawing until you select other Tool. To measure distance between elements select two
of them and switch to Measure Tool.
The statusbar shows the current mouse position on the layer in the same coordinates as in
the file. I.e. if you have (0,0) in the middle of the image in the Gerber files, the
statusbar will show (0,0) at the same place.
SUPERIMPOSING
When you load several Gerber files, you can display them "on top of each other", i.e.
superimposing. The general way to display them are that upper layers cover the layers
beneath, which is called copy (GTK+ terms).
The other ways selectable are and, or, xor and invert. They map directly to corresponding
functions in GTK. In GTK they are described as: "For colored images, only GDK_COPY,
GDK_XOR and GDK_INVERT are generally useful. For bitmaps, GDK_AND and GDK_OR are also
useful."
PROJECTS
gerbv can also handle projects. A project consist of bunch of loaded layers with their
resp. color and the background color. The easiest way to create a project is to load all
files you want into the layer you want, set all the colors etc and do a "Save Project
As...".
You load a project either from the menu bar or by using the commandline switches -p or
--project.
Currently there is a limit in that the project file must be in the same directory as the
Gerber files to be loaded.
SCHEME
The project files are simple Scheme programs that is interpreted by a built in Scheme
interpreter. The Scheme interpreter is TinyScheme and needs a Scheme program called
init.scm to initialize itself. The search path for init.scm is (in the following order)
/usr/share/gerbv/scheme, the directory with the executable gerbv, the directory gerbv was
invoked from and finally according to the environment variable GERBV_SCHEMEINIT.
TOOLS FILE
Not every Excellon drill file is self-sufficient. Some CADs produce .drd files where tools
are only referenced, but never defined (such as what diameter of the tool is.) Eagle CAD
is one of such CADs, and there are more since many board houses require Tools files.
A Tools file is a plain text file which you create in an editor. Each line of the file
describes one tool (the name and the diameter, in inches):
T01 0.024
T02 0.040
...
These are the same tools (T01 etc.) that are used in the Drill file. A standard practice
with Eagle is to create an empty Tools file, run the CAM processor, and the error report
tells you which tools you "forgot". Then you put these tools into the file and rerun the
CAM processor.
You load a tool file by using the commandline switches -t or --tools. The file can have
any name you wish, but Eagle expects the file type to be ".drl", so it makes sense to keep
it this way. Some board houses are still using CAM software from DOS era, so you may want
to exercise caution before going beyond the 8.3 naming convention.
When gerbv reads the Tools file it also checks that there are no duplicate definitions of
tools. This does happen from time to time as you edit the file by hand, especially if you,
during design, add or remove parts from the board and then have to add new tools into the
Tools file. The duplicate tools are a very serious error which will stop (HOLD) your board
until you fix the Tools file and maybe the Excellon file. gerbv will detect duplicate
tools if they are present, and will exit immediately to indicate such a fatal error in a
very obvious way. A message will also be printed to standard error.
If your Excellon file does not contain tool definitions then gerbv will preconfigure the
tools by deriving the diameter of the drill bit from the tool number. This is probably not
what you want, and you will see warnings printed on the console.
PICK&PLACE FILE
Supported comma separated file (CSV) with fixed order of data:
# X,Y in mils.
Designator,"Description","Value",X,Y,"Rotation (deg)",top/bottom
or
Designator,"Footprint","Mid X","Mid Y","Ref X","Ref Y",
"Pad X","Pad Y",T/B,"Rotation","Comment"
Units can be specified in format "# X,Y in mils." or as suffix for X/Y-coordinates, i.e
",10mil,". Supported units: in, mil, cmil, dmil, km, m, dm, cm, mm, um, nm.
ENVIRONMENT
GERBV_SCHEMEINIT
Defines where the init.scm file is stored. Used by scheme interpreter, which is
used by the project reader.
AUTHOR
Stefan Petersen (spetm at users.sourceforge.net): Overall hacker and project leader
Andreas Andersson (e92_aan at e.kth.se): Drill file support and general hacking
Anders Eriksson (aenfaldor at users.sourceforge.net): X and GTK+ ideas and hacking
COPYRIGHT
Copyright © 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 Stefan Petersen
This document can be freely redistributed according to the terms of the
GNU General Public License version 2.0