Program Operation

The Configuration Dialog Window

STL Units - the STL file does not include units in the header so the user has to know and select from the usual choices.

Gerber Units - select from: MM or INCH

Format - precision and range of Gerber Data. Typical for MM would be 3.3 and for INCH 3.4

Scale Factor - the user may need to scale the input data. If so, he can enter a value here. Default = 1.000 of course.

Polygon Output

Embedding Level - islands are generated using Gerber's LPD/LPC command. As many LPD/LPC layers are generated as needed to handle the polarity changes.

Cut Lines - islands are formed using cut lines - these are figure edges which enter and exit the figure and wind around the island area.

Data Extents - the min and max extents for x,y,z are shown here based on a scan of the input file. This helps the user as a sanity check; if the extents are different than what he is expecting he can act on it prior to running the conversion. Extents are calculated prior to scaling.

Working Directory - a directory specified by the user where temporary and intermediate results are written and where the log file is written.

Output Directory - a directory where the output Gerber files will be written

Base File Name - multiple Gerber files may be created depending on the number of slices. Each Gerber file is named using the base file name plus a slice layer index.

Top Structure - does not apply to Gerber output -- only for GDSII stream.

GBRVU Path - a directory/filename to the GBRVU executable - i.e. "C:\WCAD\GBRVU\gbrvu.exe" This tells STL2GBR how to launch the Gerber viewer.