Take a look at my newly improved PCB viewer / Gerber Viewer

[zofz]

The way to show components is to load IPC356 file. As Wikipedia lists, this file is possible to export by (almost) all CAD packages. Full name: bare board electrical test file (or flying probe test file). I will read it if it contains net names, and designators, so recreating this file via CAM software from Gerber makes no sense. Problems: load example 1, check the file there.

[zofz]

also how do it make the core/prepeg opaque? i dont have specific whole opaque gerber for the board, i only have board outline and zofpcb just render it as... an outline. i dont want to keep disabling and enabling the bottom (or top) layers/slikscreen/mask while rotating the pcb top to bottom and back. non opaque board messing the view with crisscrossing bottom and top traces (and copper pours) as arrowed below...

It looks like some aspects of my stack-layer are not intuitive. I am doing auto insert of FR4 if you set the board thickness. This is quite hidden, one must select the board outline to see the total-thickness setting (and the board outline must be there...). It is the second time I see that someone missed this. - Important! Of course Auto does it all, if it works...    Of course you have discovered the "volume" slider later.

[alank2]

I checked out your viewer the other day zofz - it is pretty cool.  Keep up the good work!

[free_electron]

just tried one of my 'monsters' ... took over 3 hours to load and crunch but  renders perfectly

[nctnico]

Unfortunately it doesn't work from Windows in a Virtualbox even with directx9 installed (Why isn't that included? It doesn't make sense to distribute software without it's key components). Too bad there is no native Linux version...

[timofonic]

 I was going to try it in VirtualBox

[timofonic]

Any news?

[zofz]

A new version!
As requested:
Component individual hide and swap to bottom (for THT) options.
Right mouse button drag moves the PCB,
Additionally:
zofzproj file saves colors and layer on/off state, 10 recorded camera orientation positions,
Variable additional layer types, (not by auto-load yet)
Plus:
many bug fixes.
nothing about Linux/OSX yet
http://www.zofzpcb.com/Gerber-Viewer-Download.html

[timofonic]

This library might be useful for you...


https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

[c4757p]

Sweeeet, I'll have to give it a test.

Linux would be nice, I suppose, but it's nice enough that you put in all this effort and just give it away. I just stick it in a VM.

[rx8pilot]

I love it. Really nice addition to my layout work flow.



Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

[Jay_Diddy_B]

Hi,

I have been using ZofZ for a few years now.

I would just like to say thank you. It is a great tool !!

Regards,

Jay_Diddy_B

[sleemanj]

Tried this tool, it crashed on my gerbers (using under VMWare mind you).

You can grab them here if you want to test:

http://sparks.gogo.co.nz/crashygerb.zip

FWIW, these gerbs were created as a merge of a number of boards with a (still beta) panelizing tool.  Some other gerb viewers also have problems with them, so you are not alone.

Circuit People's tool gets it right

KiCad's gerbview mostly gets it right (some silk funnyness).

The current git version of Geda's gerbv gets it right provided you increase the maximum arperture parameters from 102 to something larger (and recompile).  These gerber's include polygons with a couple hundred parameters (100+ points), going by comments in gerbv's source it may be that there used to be a limit of 50 points in the gerber spec, but the current gerber spec I believe may have up to 5000 points.

[zofz]

This library might be useful for you...


https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

Thanks, a quite interesting idea. By reading the doc, I found out that I can use compiled shaders from direct3D in openGL 
But the biggest part of code to handle would be DXUT - and especially DXUTgui - that is a user interface framework for Direct3D. As far as I see, there is no abstraction layer for this in bgfx and I still need to find a new fitting GUI "widget" library, common for both Direct3D and OpenGL, then convert to it, first in the windows version.

[kc8apf]

This library might be useful for you...


https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

Thanks, a quite interesting idea. By reading the doc, I found out that I can use compiled shaders from direct3D in openGL 
But the biggest part of code to handle would be DXUT - and especially DXUTgui - that is a user interface framework for Direct3D. As far as I see, there is no abstraction layer for this in bgfx and I still need to find a new fitting GUI "widget" library, common for both Direct3D and OpenGL, then convert to it, first in the windows version.

A lot of the 3D apps I've worked on separate the 2D UI from the 3D rendering.  The 2D UI is implemented in a per-platform fashion using the native OS widgets.  The 3D rendering is tied to a canvas placed in the 2D UI.  3D text is still an issue but that's rather unavoidable.

[zofz]

Tried this tool, it crashed on my gerbers (using under VMWare mind you).

You can grab them here if you want to test:

http://sparks.gogo.co.nz/crashygerb.zip

FWIW, these gerbs were created as a merge of a number of boards with a (still beta) panelizing tool.  Some other gerb viewers also have problems with them, so you are not alone.

Circuit People's tool gets it right

KiCad's gerbview mostly gets it right (some silk funnyness).

The current git version of Geda's gerbv gets it right provided you increase the maximum arperture parameters from 102 to something larger (and recompile).  These gerber's include polygons with a couple hundred parameters (100+ points), going by comments in gerbv's source it may be that there used to be a limit of 50 points in the gerber spec, but the current gerber spec I believe may have up to 5000 points.

OK, I can repeat the crash - thanks. In my case it seems to be related to drills. Also - need to remember - I need to implement a step and repeat and the new nested repeat commands. Might be important for panelizing. About the number of parameters - I have been already making problems to myself  and hopefully solved it. see the picture - it is a single aperture

[zofz]

This library might be useful for you...


https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

Thanks, a quite interesting idea. By reading the doc, I found out that I can use compiled shaders from direct3D in openGL 
But the biggest part of code to handle would be DXUT - and especially DXUTgui - that is a user interface framework for Direct3D. As far as I see, there is no abstraction layer for this in bgfx and I still need to find a new fitting GUI "widget" library, common for both Direct3D and OpenGL, then convert to it, first in the windows version.

A lot of the 3D apps I've worked on separate the 2D UI from the 3D rendering.  The 2D UI is implemented in a per-platform fashion using the native OS widgets.  The 3D rendering is tied to a canvas placed in the 2D UI.  3D text is still an issue but that's rather unavoidable.

Maybe that was a wrong decision. I wanted the performance even on weak graphic cards. I have seen performance boost when using 3D only / full screen mode. (e.g. the old method - allow to reduce resolution in 3D mode.) Now this is not that important and it would be a opportunity to switch to use the OS native GUI. I have to think it over.

[zofz]

Tried this tool, it crashed on my gerbers (using under VMWare mind you).

You can grab them here if you want to test:

http://sparks.gogo.co.nz/crashygerb.zip

FWIW, these gerbs were created as a merge of a number of boards with a (still beta) panelizing tool.  Some other gerb viewers also have problems with them, so you are not alone.

Circuit People's tool gets it right

KiCad's gerbview mostly gets it right (some silk funnyness).

The current git version of Geda's gerbv gets it right provided you increase the maximum arperture parameters from 102 to something larger (and recompile).  These gerber's include polygons with a couple hundred parameters (100+ points), going by comments in gerbv's source it may be that there used to be a limit of 50 points in the gerber spec, but the current gerber spec I believe may have up to 5000 points.

The bug was related to the board outline processing. I am in the middle of other fixes, but here is a current build which can read your project.
http://www.zofzpcb.com/Download/ZofzPCBpre.exe
BTW, the first point of every outline loop in combined.GKO is repeated twice - this should be no real problem, however.

[rx8pilot]

Just downloaded the latest, works great. Really appreciate this useful tool!

[sleemanj]

The bug was related to the board outline processing. I am in the middle of other fixes, but here is a current build which can read your project.

  Nice one

[timofonic]

Quote from: zofz on January 19, 2016, 05:24:39 AM>Quote from: timofonic on January 10, 2016, 02:25:00 AM

This library might be useful for you...


>https://github.com/bkaradzic/bgfx

Thanks, a quite interesting idea. By reading the doc, I found out that I can use compiled shaders from direct3D in openGL 
But the biggest part of code to handle would be DXUT - and especially DXUTgui - that is a user interface framework for Direct3D. As far as I see, there is no abstraction layer for this in bgfx and I still need to find a new fitting GUI "widget" library, common for both Direct3D and OpenGL, then convert to it, first in the windows version.



bgfx author is quite supportive, I'm sure he'll provide you sueful feedback about that. It's  used in a very wide variety of software, from CAD/CAM to videogames.

Blender and many other tools use OpenGL. What's wrong with that?

There's ImGUI that started as code for Media Molecule's Tearaway game.

>

ImGUI: A bloat-free graphical user interface library for C++.

• Outputs vertex buffers to be rendered the 3D-pipeline enabled application.
• Fast.
• Portable.
• Renderer agnostic.
• No specific build process is required. You can add the .cpp files to your project or #include them from an existing file.
• Self-contained within a few files that you can easily copy and compile into your application/engine: imgui.cpp, imgui.h, imgui_demo.cpp, imgui_draw.cpp, imgui_internal.h, imconfig.h (empty by default, user-editable), stb_rect_pack.h, stb_textedit.h, stb_truetype.h
• No external dependencies.
• Your code passes mouse/keyboard inputs and settings to ImGui (see example applications for more details).
• As opposed to UI for the average end-user, it’s designed to:
• Enable fast iteration.
• Empower programmers to create content creation tools and visualization/debug tools.
• It favors simplicity and productivity.
• Toward this goal it lacks certain features normally found in more high-level libraries.


• Particularly suited to integration in:
• Realtime 3D applications.
• Fullscreen applications.
• Embedded applications.
• Games.
• Any applications on consoles platforms where operating system features are non-standard.

[printedcircuit]

can anyone tell me if this software
1. can measure the size of the keepout layer like cam350?
2. can automatically find and output the width of the smallest via, narrowest trace/space?

[zofz]

can anyone tell me if this software
1. can measure the size of the keepout layer like cam350?
2. can automatically find and output the width of the smallest via, narrowest trace/space?

Hi, there is no automatic DFM/DRC check at the moment. There are:
1. manual distance measurements,
2. netlist check
I forgot about displaying the diameter by mouse hover, I did not finish it - will be done very next version.

[Philfreeze]

I am impressed, this looks gorgeous and it is free. Well done OP. 

[Rutger]

Nice job, I like it, it worked with some Altium generated gerber files.