import engineering files: Gerber / Shapefiles

Bug #171859 reported by Bug Importer
10
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Inkscape
Confirmed
Wishlist
Unassigned

Bug Description

It would be nice to be able to "paint" the files my CAD system generates.
Most of these systems generate simple shapes, such as lines, arcs, and
polygons. If Inkscape could translate them into the corresponding SVG
shapes, we could decorate our engineering reports more tastefully. :)

DXF seems to be the lowest common denominator of mechanical CAD files:

<http://images.autodesk.com/adsk/files/acad_dxf0.pdf>
[See bug 170440 for DXF import -TD]

Most printed circuit boards are generated from "Gerber files", which are a
specialized adaptation of the general RS-274 or EIA-274 language for
numerically controlled machine tools. A free, mostly complete description
is here:

<http://www.isd.mel.nist.gov/personnel/kramer/pubs/RS274NGC_3.web/RS274NGC_
33a.html>

Also ESRI shapefiles would be nice. These are the dominant file format for
Geographic Information Systems (GIS):

<http://www.esri.com/library/whitepapers/pdfs/shapefile.pdf>

Tags: importing
Revision history for this message
Buliabyak-users (buliabyak-users) wrote :

Originator: NO

(from duplicate rfes)

The previous request gave a definition for the whole RS274 machine
control
language. "Gerber format" is a very restricted subset of this, but it is
the dominant format for PC board designs. A good description of the
limited Gerber format is here:

<http://www.rulabinsky.com/cavd/text/chapa.html>

See also <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerber_File>

The official Gerber RS274X standard is at:

<http://www.artwork.com/gerber/274x/rs274xrevd_e.pdf>

and source code to parse it can be found at:

<http://sourceforge.net/projects/gerbv/>

nightrow (jb-benoit)
Changed in inkscape:
importance: Undecided → Wishlist
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Tom Davidson (tjd-mit) wrote :

DXF import is requested at bug 170957

description: updated
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Tom Davidson (tjd-mit) wrote :

Mistake: DWF import request is at 170957. DXF import is requested at bug 170440.

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