Gerber to Postscript and PDF

September 25,2013

gbr_rip can be used to convert Gerber RS274X data to Postscript, and then use the Adobe Distiller to convert the Postscript file to PDF.

To do so you will need to create a valid plot.cfg file - the file stores basic information such as plotter driver to use, page size, etc.
Here is a sample plot.cfg you can use.

pltcfg.PLTYPE:	 rps 2:repsplot
pltcfg.PGUNIT:	 INCH
pltcfg.PGSIZE:	 Z 20.000000,20.000000
pltcfg.ORIGIN:	 0.000000,0.000000
pltcfg.PGSCALE:	 1.000000
pltcfg.ROTATE:	 0
HPGL.Header:	 
HPGL.Trailer:	 
pltcfg.COMMAND_STRING:	 -cat %s>> 6.ps
HPGL1.FillOn:	 0
HPGL1.Velocity:	 30
pltcfg.InvImage:	 off
pltcfg.Transparency:	 on2
pltcfg.TOP:	 0.5
pltcfg.RIGHT:	 0.5
pltcfg.LEFT:	 0.5
pltcfg.BOTTOM:	 0.5
rpt2.DPI:	 300
pltcfg.PGSIZEZ:	 Z 20,20
pltcfg.PGSIZEY:	 Y 256,256
pltcfg.RstrBuffSize:	 104857600
pltcfg.PREVIEW:	 No
rtu3.DPI:	 300
GBRVU.PLOTWINDOW:	 -0.38,-3.65774 16.88,9.21274 inch
rty6.DPI:	 300
Raster.RowsOvrlpd:	 0,19000,19500
Raster.DropFirstRow:	 0
pltcfg.XYScale:	 1e-04
rtf2.DPI:	 1000
rps.DPI:	 1000

Here is a typical command line you can use to convert a Gerber file 6.gbr to Postscript file (rip6.ps) at 1000 DPI and scale 1.

/home/cad/gbrip/bin/gbv_rip 6.gbr -274x -DPI1000 -autosz -s1 -cfg:./plot.cfg -file rip6.ps