Provided by: gerbv_2.6.0-1_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.sf.net).
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<X,Y>|--translate=<X,Y>
Translate the image by the distance <X,Y>. Use multiple -T flags to translate multiple files.
-O<XxY>|--origin=<XxY>
Set the lower left corner of the exported image to coordinate <XxY>. Coordinates are in inches.
-a|--antialias
Use antialiasing for the generated output-bitmap.
-o <filename>|--output=<filename>
Export to <filename>.
-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 left mouse button and the image will pan as you move the
mouse. To manipulate a layer, right-click on one of the rightmost buttons. That will bring up a pop-up
menu where you can select what you want to do with that layer (load 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 the rightmost buttons.
You can also control this from the keyboard. Press Alt, enter the number on the layer you want
activate/deactivate on the numerical keypad and then release the Alt key.
ZOOMING
Zooming can be handled by either menu choices, keypressing, middle mouse button or scroll wheel. If you
press Alt+I you will zoom in and if you press Alt+O you will zoom out. If you press middle mouse button
you will zoom out, and if you press Shift and middle mouse button you will zoom in. Scroll wheel works
if you enabled that in your X server and mapped it to button 4 and 5. You can also zoom in by pressing z
and zoom out by pressing shift+z (ie Z). You can make the image fit by pressing f (there is also a menu
alternative for this).
You can also do zooming by outline. Press right 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 right 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. By pressing shift, 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 either zoom, pan or press
the escape key.
The statusbar shows the current mouse position on the layer in the same coordinates as in the file. Ie 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", ie 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 excercise 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.
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
Version January 11, 2008 gerbv(1)